August 28, 2006
Airport's Taxi Route Change Before Crash
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:16 p.m. ET
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- The taxi route for commercial jets using Blue Grass Airport's main runway was altered a week before Comair Flight 5191 took the wrong runway and crashed, killing all but one of the 50 people aboard, the airport's director said Monday.
Both the old and new taxiways cross over the shorter general aviation runway where the commuter jet tried to take off early Sunday, Blue Grass Airport Executive Director Michael Gobb told The Associated Press.
The runway repaving was completed late on the previous Sunday, Gobb said. It wasn't clear if the Comair pilots aboard Flight 5191 had been there since the change. Comair operates that regular 6 a.m. weekend flight to Atlanta from Lexington, but another commuter airline takes over that commute during the week.
''It's slightly different than it used to be,'' said Charlie Monette, president of Aero-Tech flight school based at the airport. ''Could there have been some confusion associated with that? That's certainly a possibility.''...
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/A...cky-Crash.html