So, if you can post your garbage on more than one forum, I can cross-post my reply. Moderators, trim us both out if this is bad!
Well, starting to play the game a bit here, I can see your statements are utterly incorrect as you try to shade the controller's actions at the critical moments.
Originally Posted by
chickenlittle
At 22:25 CD transmits "Say again, please" to Eagle 882, while Comair is rolling on the wrong runway. He is NOT doing traffic count as the FAA is telling us.
Wrong. The aircraft is NOT rolling down the runway at this point (and why can't you quote the UTC times, given the plethora of sources, unless you are trying to obscure the facts?). The transmission you reference above is made at
1005:33 UTC. According to the FDR, the aircraft did not commence moving after the takeoff clearance until
1005:22, commences the left turn on the runway
1005:39, and stops the turn (but not the aircraft), lined up on runway 26 at
1006:00, simultaneously as the N1s start to rise to takeoff thrust. The airspeeds actually start to increase at
1006:05.
Originally Posted by
chickenlittle
At 22:30 [1005:37], CD is probably looking at the radar scope as he is talking to Eagle 882 and giving him a frequency change to center.
This is 16 seconds after he cleared Comair for takeoff and he hasn't seen him rolling on the wrong runway. He was supposed to scan his runway when he cleared him for takeoff and should have noticed him on the wrong runway.
Wrong again, it's 20 seconds after the takeoff clearance, which was issued at 1005:17. And, it's two seconds
before the aircraft begins the left turn to line up on the runway. The aircraft is not yet "rolling" on the wrong runway, and in fact is not yet on
any runway.
As to the "scan the runway" issue, I personally scan the runway
before I issue the takeoff clearance. That clearance was given at
1005:17, while the aircraft was stopped on the taxiway short of runway 26, according to the FDR. Note too that the distance from the correct and incorrect runway positions is very short, and on the same sight-line from the tower - take a look at the sat pictures or airport diagram. Again, if the controller scanned the length of runway 22 at
1005:17, he would have seen an aircraft on more-or-less the right part of the airport, still on a taxiway, and no reason to withhold takeoff clearance.
The critical moments where the controller could have possibly had an effect on the outcome were between
1006:00, when the aircraft completed its turn to line up on runway 26, and about
1006:24, when the aircraft passed through 100 knots, and (my assumption) probably could no longer have stopped on the runway, and thus an accident was inevitable. V1 was not reached until
1006:31, but that was calculated for the longer runway length.
The controller thus had about 24 seconds to notice the aircraft starting a rolling takeoff on runway 26. I have no idea what he did during this 24 second period, and the tape is silent. If he says he looked down or turned away for a while to perform other duties, there is no reason to disbelieve him.
Originally Posted by
chickenlittle
It's odd that a station agent for American Eagle saw Comair on the wrong runway
By the station agent's statement, he was doing nothing else but watching the aircraft head out. The controller had other things to do, being that he was alone in the tower, since the tower manager was not providing FAA-required staffing for the shift.
Originally Posted by
chickenlittle
That means that CD pulls the hook at 1008:30 CUT. That is about 2 1/2 minutes after the crash.
Utterly incorrect. The CVR records "sound of impact" at 1006:33. The controller initiates the call to the FD at 0607:23. That's 50 seconds later.
Originally Posted by
chickenlittle
What could he have been doing for all that time? Maybe he took the clipboard over to the radio to change stations.
A stupid, evil statement. Your facts are wrong, therefore your assumptions are even more so.
Originally Posted by
chickenlittle
He tells the crash crew that the aircraft is off the approach end of runway 8. That is the departure end of runway 26. 80 plus 180 degrees is 260, BUT then he tells the crash crew the aircraft took off of runway 22.
He told them that because that's where the aircraft actually was. He obviously looked out the window, and told them what he saw, in relation to the runways. And at that point, as far as he knew, the aircraft DID take off from runway 22.
Bergquist rambles on with many more baseless assumptions that he does NOT have the background knowledge to make. They depend on the layout of the tower cab, among other things, and we don't know anything about that. None of it holds water.
Any response there, Chicken-man?