Apropos, my suggestion earlier, the tower would surely have given permission for the a/craft to take off from the intersection.
Hmmm, you may be on to something. Intersection takeoffs have been badly botched in the past. Remember Dynasty at ANC "cleared for takeoff on Runway 32 at Kilo"? They took off on taxiway Kilo instead, left tire marks on the snowbank at the upwind end (but continued on to TPE). I also remember a Lear years ago, perhaps at CVG, that took the reciprocal heading in an intersection takeoff and took out some approach lights but got airborne.
It has been argued that 3500 feet (or 3400 feet according to some charts) on runway 26 would be enough to get a loaded RJ airborne as long as both engines were at takeoff thrust. The overhead shots from today show that both the entire long runway and part of the short runway have fresh blacktop applied. Is it possible the takeoff was inadvertently commenced from the intersection on the short runway? Both runways have the new surface near the intersection...
It is quite possible that the Comair flight was cleared for takeoff and assigned a departure heading before reaching the runway. In that case, a lot of us would set the heading bug to the intial vector. Of course the lubber line or whatever it's called on a Canadair would still give a clue if the alignment for takeoff wasn't right.
In a few hours I'll take the runway for an early liftoff. I'll ponder these discussions in the hope that it will help me avoid Sunday's tragic outcome.