some have dismissed my idea of pilot/escort/follow me vehicles with radio comm to the plane in question.
When the A380 was coming along, we knew clearances were going to be tough on the ground...after all they designed a 4 engine plane with only inboard thrust reversers, thinking the outboards would hang out over the grass.
well, it would have been cheap insurance last night to have those pilot cars.
Just thinking about the turn the comair did, I can imagine , faster than can be read, that the horizontal stab was pushed down perhaps raising the nose gear off the ground, making the next step, pushing the plane about with about as much ease as some of you remember while pushing down on the stab and shifting that C150 around.
I hope that all those nice folks on the regional jet have a neck exam by a doctor, and then talk to a lawyer anyway.
There seems to be a rush to embrace the concept of ''assumed action'''perhaps air france assumed that comair would continue straight ahead instead of stopping.
Many ATC facilities clear you for takeoff before the preceeding plane has broken ground...with assumed action (or whatever atc calls it now).