Isn't it weird how we can watch these videos and think these guys are literally moments away from dying but at that moment for them was like a normal day. It's a crazy life
@@My_Fair_Lady SORRY I THINK YOU MISS MY POINT,MISTAKES ARE MADE EVERYDAY WITHOUT DEATH, THE MORE COMPLICATED MACHINES INVENTED THE MORE PROBLEMS EXISTS.IF MAN WAS SUPPOSE TO FLY HE WOULD HAVE WINGS AT BIRTH, HOW MANY MORE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO DIE BECAUSE OF MISTAKES?????? ,I MAKE IT POINT NEVER TO GET ON A PLAN EVER, .
@@denieledwards6893 Man was meant to fly. That's why man invented airplanes. Why are you using the internet? It's unnatural. If man was supposed to do that, computers would exist in nature. Computers are very complicated machines with many problems.
@@alukuhito STUPID COMMENT...... COMPUTERS ARE NOT KILLING THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. JUST BECAUSE MAN'S INVENTS SOMETHING DOESN'T MEAN'S IT'S GOOD TO FOR THE WORLD.
I am a pilot. I want to tell you that you did a such a great job on this video , inspiring us to be better pilots BECAUSE of it, than those people will not have died in vain
Failing to check the compass heading to the runway before takeoff is what makes this so tragic to me. I will never forget this incident as I lost friends on that flight.
@JayMac I would not call it 'lapse in concentration'. I think you can call it complacency. The way the pre departure check was read is a typical example of complacency, just going through the motions without actually checking anything at all. That is why the question response was introduced in the first place. The PNF asks the 'questions', the PF checks and responds, but even then it sometimes becomes just a collection of words, especially when they have to do it multiple times per day. The most disturbing to me is the check of the runway heading. That should be repeating the runway heading, so in this case Runway 22 and then physically look at the HDG bug and see where that one is pointed at. In this case it was 40 degrees off and nobody noticed it. That is truly piss poor.
That both pilots noted the lack of runway lights - and neither 'clicked' that something was amiss, is quite unbelievable! What a horrible, unnecessary crash.
Pilot ego is the cause of many crashes. Afraid to admit to air traffic control, the passengers and even their colleague in the cockpit that they made a mistake and abort a landing or take-off they just plough on hoping for the best and often ending in disaster.
When the first officer had landed the night before several sections of runway lighting were out, he even mentioned this in the takeoff briefing so they were expecting some runway lights to be out. That’s why they mentioned it during the takeoff roll, but didn’t make the connection.
@@nocalsteve A critical error not noticing that the compasses, and heading indicators all indicated 260 vs 220 as well as the controller not noticing that they lined up on the wrong runway.
It’s part of the checklist for a reason - somebody learned this lesson long ago and we should not have needed to learn it again. With the callout “Runway Heading” you point at the compass to focus your attention and actually _read it out_ . The habit of physically pointing to the focus of attention works against complacency.
Yep. That's one of the lessons that was learned here. Every takeoff we do now, the PM looks at the HSI after takeoff power is set, makes sure the heading bug is at the top, and verbalizes "Heading checks" if it looks right, or calls an abort if it doesn't...
@@boshack4467 I'm from Frankfort and have two older brothers. We all went to Frankfort High and battled against the Meaux family for a couple decades! I didn't know they had a family member on the ComAir flight. So sorry.
I can't think of anything worse than to know you are going to die and there is nothing you can do to prevent it. to know you do not have enough time to pull up before you hit the ground.
You can hear the pilots on 2 occasions verify runway heading, with line up check, runway heading, but were clearly going thru the motion of a check list. As an instructor, complacency is a killer, it also seemed like they where very tired at that hour. The CVR is sobering and should be a reminder that complacency kills. Combined with tower not checking is the classic multi layered failure senerio.
Agreed, you can hear the comfort of doing something they love and are good at in their voices. Like I feel when driving out on the "open road" when all seems right. Every pilot should be just a little terrified at those important moments of a flight I guess.
their slurred, rushed speech is indicative of ritualistic behavior, like how flight attendants slur through their standard scripts. They were treating this situation as a completely inconsequential routine thing and were just going through the motions. It seems like pilots need to treat every moment as a completely new, potentially dangerous situation in which anything that can go wrong will go wrong. the controller shares some blame as well, also whatever manager scheduled him for 22 hours in the past 24 hours. they all treated the situation as completely not special at all, and just a routine thing
I was living in Lexington when this occurred, and I'd taken that exact flight MANY times. There is plenty of blame to go around for this one. It's not like this is Hartfield or LaGuardia, it's a very small single runway airport (they tried to take off on the light craft strip). But anyone familiar with what seemed like endless construction that had been going on will tell you, it is complete BS that the County wasn't held liable for some of the blame! Multiple flight crews had complained about how confusing the construction was making things there. But I was also Air Force for 10 years, and taking off on a runway with no lights?! Seriously?! This flight was a back & forth every hour, all day every day shuttle and with that comes complacency.
Amen. I hardly ever fly bit I heard all the time about the construction at the air port. Its was common conversation at that time. The county should have taken blame. But under certain laws they were protected.
Precisely ....government CYA....I grew up in a flying family from usaf fighter jock to 172s to 337 to Bonanzas to Barons to King Airs to Dukes and a pet T-28 and a couple of Lears thrown in Oh and a Starship...Beech twin fan...leased....my dad had 15-16,000 plus hours....a serious pilot and I flew with him from age baby to 40 And I can tell you the tower should have noticed too....Lexington ain’t Hartsfield
I can only write as a passenger and someone who doesn't like flying very much as it is. But 2 things kind of stood out for me in this video and that is that the runways in general seemed too dark (but IDK if there's a visual reason for this) and it seems kind of strange that there were no numerical markings anywhere along the runway. Not painted on the ground or anything. I understand that there is a single number painted at the very end of the runway, but in this case it might have helped, especially with a cross-runway situation.
@@ih82r8 You are 100% correct about the darkness, and that is because there were NO lights. They mistakenly taxied onto the wrong runway! They turned onto the small craft strip, which is only used during the day. The airport had been under construction for a long time, and the taxiway to get to the end of the main flightline had changed and hadn't been repainted yet. Numerous flightcrews had complained that the signage being used was difficult to see. As for the numbers not being there, the surviving flight crew member said that they just "assumed" the numbers hadn't been repainted yet either. This particular flight was an hourly bounce from Lex-Atl, & back EVERY hour, EVERY day, so the regular crew would have known all of this. This crew was filling in, so they had no idea. Bottomline is that the Lexington-Fayette County Government should have been found liable for this tragedy, but we all know how bulletproof our Gov't is today.
This was the SECOND incident of this nature at this airport, the first having been caught in time by an alert tower controller, and rerouted to the correct runway. Following the Comair tragedy, Runway 08-26 was decommissioned, and replaced by a slightly longer RWY 09-27, which does not intersect RWY 04-22, thus eliminating this recurrent source of error.
this is literally where im from and it’s literally heartbreaking knowing something like that happened somewhere that happened so close and honestly i don’t even remember hearing about it.
haiwa tigere they had to be competant to get their wings. Unfortunately we are human beings that comes with us not being perfect ie we make mistakes but we get a second chance to learn from them but in this instance there was no second chance .As for the fake PIA. Pilots they were not fake most were ex Airforce pilots who had not swapped over their licence which made their applications for work as commercial pilots invalid Pakistan is a young democracy it’s institutions are not strong yet it will take a decade of new Young educated leaders to come through to reign in all the malpractice in Pakistan but under Imran Khan there is hope for the future. I would not be afraid on a PIA plane but I would on a Max as it is aerodynamically unsafe and no software fix can put that right . I know EASA has banned PIA and in 6 months if they have sorted out the mess they will be back in UK as it’s very popular here. ✈️🇬🇧👨✈️👩✈️
They were probably horribly tired. The plane was leaving at 6 in the morning. If they were getting home at 11pm, that doesn't leave them much time for good sleep. It might explain their slurred speech too.
My father responded to this crash as a firefighter he said this was by far one of the worst accidents he had ever dealt with he was on the LFD at station 20 3rd shift. I still remember this vividly.
Go back and listen to how many times Runway 22 was said, yet they still lined up on the wrong runway. I guess they never looked at their compass. That being said ATC should have bought contributing factor.
Sorry, but I didn't like their general attitude and speech. Way too much "oh, yeah". At one point on the CVR I wondered if they had a stewardess there doing hanky panky. Or if they were smoking something. That's what it sounded like. E.g. It sounds like the guy said, checklist "glued", which I guess is "cool" slang for "completed". Then they proceed to "glue" the airplane to the ground at 120mph. But they were "cool". Like their IQs.
@@waterwalker1315 Look things like that can happen, humans fuck up all the time on roadways, so something like this can be expected especially if this is not your home airport this was the first flight of the day with no other plane traffic being a small airport. My main point is human error will happen, so what is the point of a control tower, why are they built so high in the air to overlook the airport? This was the first flight of the fucking day with no other aircraft lined up like major airports, what were the dozen or so air traffic people doing, this was not the middle of the day with hundreds of planes coming and going.
@@popcorn-uz3tn There is text onscreen at 11:40 about the NTSB post-crash analysis of the events leading to the accident regarding the fact that there was only one FAA controller in the tower (in spite of an FAA memo directing them to have two on overnight shifts at the small Blue Grass field airport). It's difficult to be sure from the airport plan view at 6:15, but I suspect that from his perspective well to the southwest, the single controller in the tower could not easily see and confirm in the dark which runway the Comair jet was lining up on-his instructions to CROSS 26 and taxi to the longer runway were clear. This was an early morning departure, and I suspect that fatigue played a role in the egregious failure of the flight crew to verify that the markings on the runway were for 22, not the shorter, unlit 26. They somehow lost track of the fact that no runway crossing ever occurred, failed to check their heading in position and see the standard runway markings which read "26," and were baffled by the lack of appropriate lighting on the shorter runway during the takeoff roll which they nevertheless continued, failing to recognize their peril. This was an early morning flight, and the flight crew probably woke at their lodgings two to three hours before the 6:00 departure. Because there is little profit in their operations, Commuter flights that operate out of smaller airports are often manned by flight crew who are not provided with adequate sleep opportunities.
it's almost like an episode of "The Twilight Zone." This is one of the most tragic things I've ever heard of related to aviation. And I was working ramp service at RDU the day of the Air Florida 90 crash in DC, so I'm no stranger to the subject.
This crash happened a 25 minute drive from my house. I knew no one aboard the airplane. But one of my neighbors had a daughter on board. The neighbor committed suicide a few weeks later. Apart from the same sadness I would feel for anyone to die in such tragic thing, I can't say I have any connection to it, apart from it being close to home. But I do know that in a relatively small community, 50 people dying affects a lot of people.
I"m just about a 40 minute drive away from Bluegrass airport, as a person who has watched this channel for years, it's surreal to know that one of these tragic cases happened so close to me.
Wow! Sorry to hear about the accident and the loss of life. That's always tragic. On a totally separate and unrelated point, I am blown away by the graphics and animations in your videos. Top notch!
It's easy to see how complacency had a hand in this accident. Even if audibly confirming the runway was on their checklist, I still doubt they would've caught the mistake. You can tell by the way they slur the words together when running thru the list. They're not so much checking things, they're just going thru the motions because that's the requirement.
One of the issues was the ATC. Pilots never cross a runway without permission. They pull up to it , tell the ATC they are there and wait for permission to cross it. This time the ATC just told them they had permission to go all the way to runway 22, (Which involved crossing 26). They misinterpreted that as there was no runway between them and 22.....so they lined up on the first runway they came to. What they were supposed to do was 1. Pull up to the edge of 26 and wait for permission to enter it. 2. Make a left onto runway 26 3. Travel down 26 a hundred feet. 4. Make a right turn off of 26 5. Wait for permission to enter 22. 6. Make a left onto 22. This would require the ATC to give them permission to enter runways twice so to save time he just told them to go to 22 while they were still pulling away from the gate. They missed that they were on the wrong runway partly to the fact that none of the vertical signs were illuminated and the runway numbers painted on the concrete were largely worn away. The only solid proof they had that they were on the wrong runway was the heading indicator, which they both missed and the ATC briefly mentioning they had permission to cross 26 (but he did that long before they reached 26) They screwed up , but the airport signs and the ATC made it easy for them to screw up.
@@glennchartrand5411 Thank you for this explanation. I'm not a pilot, so the 26 confused the hell out of me and I wondered if maybe they couldn't see it because they were idling on top of it as they finished their checks???? I was going to watch again because I wasn't sure they'd confirmed runway 22, but from what we saw it seemed like that wouldn't have changed anything. They had already confirmed twice that that's where they were going, but were unaware that they were on 26? It just seemed like they could have confirmed 22 and crashed or confirmed 26 and crashed just the same and I couldn't figure out why the controller didn't seem to know where they were. Your comment made the whole situation tragically clear. It's almost never just one mistake and the person left with a burning aircraft (whether actual or metaphorical) isn't necessarily the one who deserves to be identified as the one responsible for the disaster.
I was trained always to cross check aircraft compass with runway heading during lineup check.40 degrees should have rang some bells, hard to believe with stated crew experience.
They set the heading bug for 22 then got to 26 and went yep heading confirmed. Talk about confirmation bias, they saw exactly what they were expecting to see.
They were talking like a couple of cowboys and not paying attention to EVERY detail. So sad. 49 lives ended and one ruined... Edit: I just watched a few news items with James Polehinke talking about the accident. 14 years later he remains a broken man just trying to carry on. It is so damn heartbreaking.
Have you ever pulled into the driveway and realize you don't remember the ride home? Some things just become so much by rote it's a miracle more tragedies don't happen on the ground & off.
Not what we are paid for - or to do. Command Responsibility earns you the left seat. I am constantly appalled at the lack of sterile cockpit in USA & ill disciplined/non-standard radio procedure/cockpit calls.
That is one of the most terrifying feelings there is. When hubs was first in the Navy, we had one car. If I wanted/needed it, I had to go in to the ship with him, and drive home. I got accustomed to not remembering the drive home... until the morning I was almost home, and noticed I was in my pajamas. Holy cats, how the...? Totally messed with me.
Listen to how casual they sound whilst completing the checklists. The First Officer sounds more like a DJ giving details of the next track he's about to play for his listeners rather than a pilot going through an important list of checks. Complacency really is a killer.
And who hasn't almost gone thru a red light or looked a second time to see a car you missed? And they said the captain was "by the book"! Read "Fate is the hunter" if you like aviation
There was some kind of 'cool', a kind of 'swagger' the captain was going for that seems totally out of place in the cockpit of a commercial passenger jetliner. Hate to say that after the poor guy lost his life. Hopefully the tightening of 'sterile cockpit' regulations has by now all but eliminated that cowboy mentality
I’ve been watching these videos the last few days, but for some reason I saw the title and remembered a classmate from highschool lost his little sister in a plane crash. I couldn’t remember the details but when I looked it up, I realized it was this flight. I wasn’t even close with this classmate but it always stuck with me how painful this must’ve and still is for him and his family. She was just 15 or 16 I believe. Her autopsy revealed smoke inhalation, meaning she was alive after impact...along with 15 other passengers. Poor, sweet girl.
I have watched roughly a dozen of your video's. and while some of them are heart breaking, I feel that you are providing a vital service to the men and women who make the air their office. keep up the good work.
Living in Louisville during this time, this was a huge story. The surviving pilot has Survivor Guilt to add to his injuries, after having his leg amputated, he is left with a severe brain injury. Very Sad Indeed.
@@docholladay7638 yeah you cant just *look* at a person and see their internal injuries.. Besides that, there are a lot of different levels of severity of how much he was hurt as well as the emotional trauma.
@@docholladay7638 Could you please share the video you were watching? Or even just the mans name so I could look up the story please Edit:my apologies I completely forgot that the video had his name
@@docholladay7638 Also just to clarify I wasn't trying to be snarky, I'm being genuine. I'd like to look up some more stuff on this particular accident.(: thanks in advance
@@ronichapman8177 it was such a weird experience when this happened . I talked to him and he said he had to take a trip the next morning. I said I did too, but I was going to drive because I was going to Cincinnati , a couple hours away. I offered to take him to the airport there, assuming he'd be flying out of Cincinnati . He said he'd be flying out of Lexington and I was surprised because I didn't know there was an airport there. I got up in the morning and was driving down I75 when I heard on the radio that a plane had crashed on takeoff from Lexington. It was so weird because I only found out the previous night that the airport existed. I got nervous but thought ' no way was that LTs plane' . But it was
@@captainmarvel9610 Oh ok that's fine you don't have to go through the trouble. I just read a comment in another video stating they were and was just curious. So sad and tragic.
Can i just say as an extremely anxious flyer (even looking at a plane gives me chills) i find these videos help me. I appreciate all the information that tells you exactly what went wrong and why. Something is always changed and improved as a result. So thank you for making me feel more at peace with the aircraft🧡
But why does a tragedy always have to happen before any improvements are done? The same thing with our Infrastructure. Nobody gives a damn until our bridges collapse and people die as a result of it. Fires in high rise buildings too because they aren't kept up to code.
Same here, but they don't relax me, they show me that planes full of people crashing is a regular thing. These videos are never-ending. Theres a whole list of them in the sidebar lol.
I have to say that I find this effect on you very weird. For me it is exactly the opposite: these videos show me that deadly accidents have happened a LOT and also can and will happen bc of all sorts of reasons, from mistakes by the pilots, technical issues, misunderstandings, weather conditions and many other reasons(or a combination of several factors) which just tells me that flying in a plane is not and will never be a 100% controllable and safe thing. And I don't want to die in a horrific way like that. So the effect is has on me is that I will NEVER in my life fly again. I'll gladly stay on the ground forever.
As a retired Tower controller I can’t help but to say the controller clearly wasn’t looking at all out of the windows. All of this was preventable . Pilots made a mistake but that’s a Tower controllers basic mandate. Tragic
They stayed on Runway 26 when they were told to hold there and then take runway 22 for takeoff.That detail completely skipped the attention of both pilots. Following the crash, Bluegrass Airport changed the layout so short runways no longer intersect with longer ones. A memorial sits at the University of Kentucky Arboretum to honor victims of the crash.
I *really* do not understand how a pilot can make a mistake like this, especially if this video is accurate. You've got the friggin' runway number *RIGHT. THERE. ON. THE. GROUND.* and the tower *TOLD* you which runway you were to depart from!!!!! I'd sue the hell out of Comair or Delta or whoever. That was just sloppy on the part of the flight crew. 🤬
Sorry, you're wrong. They were not told to hold before crossing 26. See 6:00 Why the captain stopped there, we don't know. Why ATC didn't see them stop there, we don't know. We don't know why ATC didn't see them go to runway 26 - and not question that action.
I remember this one well. Yes they violated the sterile cockpit but not as badly as others I've heard seen in crashes. Very humbling to see how something so seemingly simple can cause such devastation.
Sterile cockpit is fine in itself, but it can't just be a vacuum. The time needs to be used to redundantly check that nothing has been taken for granted.
I live in Nashville, TN. This airport is on a short drive for us. So, geographically, it is close although not one we would normally use. I remember very well when this happened. It was only a short time after the family from Nebraska crashed and the little girl was the only survivor. She hiked several miles at night to get help. Very sad.
You should have ended that sentence at 'Yes they violated the sterile cockpit'. It's either sterile or not. There are no degrees or levels of yes or no bullcrap. These dudes were flying on ego, not exhaustion, not anything else. Forty-nine innocent people paid the price for their lack of professionalism.
When a plumber is unprofessional, a house gets flooded with sewage. People become angry. Both pilots making the same mistake at the same time is a rare occurrence, thankfully.
This is an incredibly well made video. It is both sympathetic to the souls onboard, and it captures the mistake so well, and demonstrates how it was not obvious what was wrong until the last moment. Airport lighting and signage could be greatly improved to avert this. Also, the need to cross check aircraft heading with runway heading and ATC confirmation. RIP
Mark Freeman: when you say "the video demonstrates how it was not obvious what was wrong until the last moment", you quite clearly are speaking as a non-pilot lay person. I believe most pilots watching this video would be VERY uncomfortable with the sequence of events. Especially if they'd been able to hear the "banned" cockpit smalltalk!
I just wanted to say the effort you put in to make these videos is greatly appreciated by me and you are my favourite youtuber! Well done and keep up the good work. 😉
Smug praise comments like this are so disappointing and unnecessary. Like or dislike. Unoriginal idiots that just want hearts that mean nothing in the real world.
@@ARedMotorcycle I mean this in a very serious way - what on earth is wrong with you that you cannot understand the concept of gratitude. It's just to let the person know they did a good job and thank you shfjzncbdb
I've watched quite a few episodes from the Flight Channel but I find this one to be the most heartbreaking. Given the experience of the pilots and their general camaraderie, Just terribly sad to think that a small series of missteps could result in something so tragically catastrophic.
I'm willing to bet these two didn't have military backgrounds. A good drill sarge would've screamed a little humility into them. As a student of human behaviour, I still think attitude (not the plane's) played a significant role here.)
I was one of the agent that had the awful job of advice the family. After that incident I went into major depression, had to go on medication. Finally after 2 years I could no longer reform my job and became mentally disabled. I stombled on this video all the memories. I ask God to please continue to comfort the families.
I'm sure everyone watching this must have heartfelt sympathy for anyone put into the position that you were in just 'doing your job'. No words or actions can provide comfort for you, but I hope your thoughts don't linger any longer than necessary for your well being. Bless you!
I live in Lexington and was growing up here when this accident happened. I was super young at the time so it didn't impact me personally, but we have a beautiful sculpture here at the University of Kentucky to commemorate the ones who died. Seems like such a simple mistake too, I feel awful for the F/O here. Thankfully I'm not aware of anyone in the area who actively hates the guy and despite the tragic nature of it, the community seems to have healed as much as it can.
My cousin was one of the pilots. He was an awesome guy. He took my older brothers and i to watch ohio state wrestling matches and on fishing trips as a young kid. I was in 7th grade when this happened and still think about it all the time.
@@elle4520 whjch is the reason that most major airplane mfgs try to simplify even automate the number of functions required to operate a plane safely. It is also a matter of NTSB concern when they review an accident. I think of it like a GRE test. The problem is that you don't die in a fireball if you get a few questions wrong on the GRE. That can happen fairly easily if the flight crew make enough bad decisions. One of the things that I try to emphasize in my.line of work is to establish default configurations that are set up with the click of a button. Known-good configurations that will get a noob up and running safely. I watch thesr videos and I can't help but see that in many videos (which are plane dependent) not only do they miss checklist items they also misfire on checklist items and there is no way to veriffy that the checklist was actually done completely or correctly. And it just does not help to issue crew-reminders when the crew simply is not concerned with the reminder issue. They are distracted...worried about something else. Especially when you have a 100 item prefligt checklist, and 4 other checklists on top of that. That is a recipie for disaster. THEN you have twin runways 26L and 26R. It is night and dark out no visible indicators because they are only painted on the ground and the crew is still going through preflight. They look up and see a yellow even ref light on the runway indicating thwt the runway is closed instead of a green light.indicating that it is open.and dismiss it as a lighting error...because they can't see what runway they are on. They cannot even see the runway lights for the runway they are supposed to be on? They just roll off down a dark runway? So the problem there is that there are multiple problems that led to this amd multiole problems that the flight can run into and they could and probably have done this in the past without a problem. But this time the runway is UR. Or it is too short. Or a planr is landing on it or a plane is on it waiting for takeoff clearance. It's a roll of the dice repeated every flight until it comes up boxcars. If they aborted takeoff with every problem and regularly put the plane in for "minor repairs" then how often would they actually fly?
I think you got to be on the ball all the time when your in the flight deck..dosent matter if your highest honours captain, and 30,000 hours flying, or very good co pilot, do your checks and not being complacent like I can do this blindfolded attitude.. it takes one little mistake to turn into a catastrophe..!!!
The emotions of us humans/pilots go within a split second from "I think I'm forgetting something" to "We're pro's, we know what we are doing" to "What are we doing again?"
I won't pin the entire responsibility on him. Accidents in aviation is almost always a result of multiple protocols being ignored or failure of multiple redundancies that are supposed to prevent it. There are no accidents with only 1 cause. There's a theory behind it known as the swiss cheese theory. Yes, he was a very unprofessional pilot and the liability will be on him in the court of law but safety is also a shared responsibility between ATC, the airport, and everyone working there.
thats for dam sure flight 401 first officer he still lives but we all makes mistakes you dont get over this shit until you die think of flight 232 1989 yes a lot died but a lot lived that s the god wonted it to be yes it s sad and may god rest there souls
Larry Dockery Why bring up god and an entirely different flight other than the one we’re watching. You just can’t pick and choose to use the word god based on number of fatalities. No fatalities, god had a hand on it. No survivors, no mention of god whatsoever.
For some reason this really hit me more than any other crash video I've seen. The sheer avoidability of it all, the screams at the end, the terrible guilt the f/o as the sole survivor must feel...just horrible the whole thing. RIP to all.
It is insane. A routine flight, and a normal takeoff turned tragic from one poor judgement by the pilots not to confirm the runway, even when the runway lights were off, which should of at least flagged enough caution to ask ATC if they were on the right runway. It makes my stomach sink just thinking they saw no lights and said...fuck it...let’s proceed. Once simple communication would have changed everything
It is amazing to me that there are not a lot more accidents based solely on failure to properly understand and communicate. The ATC's and pilots seem to have a competition to see who can speak the fastest and most unintelligible.
Fully agree if it wasn’t on the screen in writing I wouldn’t be able to understand the messages they are so garbled and considering the importance of getting it right it’s not acceptable.
It's a "Who's got the bigger one!" ego thing. Been a pilot for many years and I have never understood that. You can just hear the ego oozing from the F.O.'s mouth throughout the entire sequence from checklisting to ATC comms. So ridiculous. Speak plainly on a plane!
A really horrific thought, in 1993 an identical incident at the same airport was narrowly avoided as an aircraft lined up on 26 after being cleared for 22. They began powering up to take off but realized in time and managed to stop just short of the end of the runway. Even though I live near here, I had never heard of the other incident until now. After seeing this video I looked up the history of the airport.
Yay another great video! RIP to all who perished in this crash, I also saw the first officer on this flight who is also in the documentary of Lone survivors I think
@@silver-eyedandrhesusnegati9733 yeah, he was partially responsible for the error, but I still feel badly for him. I think I'd personally rather die than be the only survivor. We all make mistakes. Fortunately, most mistakes don't kill 49 people.
@@Crisco8624 If you search Cecilia Crocker (The sole survivor of Northwest flight 255) the first search result by ABC News titled: " Lone survivor of 1987 plane crash breaks silence" at around 2:11 Comair flight 5191 sole survivor will be featured.
I enjoy the heck out of these videos. You do great work. My late father was a Navy and later a TWA pilot. He would have loved your videos, and I wish he were still here to watch them with me.
I remember when this happened. My family and I were watching the aftermath on TV in shock. A couple from my hometown, who had just gotten married 12 hours before and were travelling to their honeymoon destination, were lost on this flight. Rest in peace, Jon and Scarlett.
I agree, and could hardly understand a word they were saying, and I'm sure Air Traffic Controllers felt the same way. They should be clearly instructed to speak "clearly" -- or no clearance to take off. Everyone has to know what's going on.
@@grantp4022 I kept thinking the same about the 1st O. He sounded like he was trying to eat the mic, nothing but a bunch of mumbling. But I'm sure in his head he sounded way cool.
My main take away from this is how did it get to 2006 without procedures in place to avoid such a scenario (particularly in the dark) given so many airports have multiple and/or old runways? Also shows how sharp pilots have to be at all times
I would like to hear the audio of them talking about unrelated topics. That's the part where paying attention mattered and the flying public is trusting the pilots to focus.
They were "gossiping" about work (promotions, pay scales, complaining about "having to deal with a lot of Brits and Australians") stuff like that. You can read the whole transcript here www.tailstrike.com/270806.pdf
@@clsinstl "yeah but you gotta deal with a lot of Brits and Australians. you know it some of these Brits are a little up tight.", yes, they get a little miffed if you try to take off from the wrong runway ;-)
As a Marine I was 1 of 2 survivors out of a group of 16, a little bit around the corner from being a lone survivor. Neither myself nor my buddy ever had lasting effects of survivors guilt. I actually never really had any, whereas my buddy did for a few weeks. I suppose some people suffer from it, more or less than others. Although I was of course, extremely heartbroken over the loss of my comrades, I always felt like life and death were just random acts anyway. It doesn't matter who or depend on a why or a where, people are born and people die. It's all just a random draw. May peace find everyone!
You probably also didn't feel responsible for their deaths ... makes a massive difference. But also, people are definitely wired differently. Some people are able to compartmentalize. A great skill to have if you are a fire person or a cop (for example). Some of us aren't. And if you aren't, AND you feel responsible, then it can destroy you.
Roll on 18th August, Microsoft Flight Sim 2020 is released with every plane/ airport/location on the planet in 4K even your own home, these Videos will look even more stunning than they already do. Great work BTW we watch them all. Awful incident.
That end of the runway scared me even in this graphics level. I can only imagine the panic it would've caused me on the new simulator. Sant for those pilots at that situation.
im not sure about that "airport" one in 4k because on the list itself theres like 45 airport "handcrafted" so the other 30-40 thousands airport would be AI generated
complacency , is the bane of all pilots, i had one bout with it, it almost killed my entire family. since, i check and double check then check again. i took off on an old runway at night , same heading as the active .in a king air. and barely cleared a grader sitting on the end of the now taxiway. small airport with no functioning lighting. THAT'LL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.
Imagine no guiding Runway lights yet the Pilot continued the only visible sign for takeoff ignored I’m at a loss to know why, This was totally contrary to their training both are to blame so sad indeed a moments lack of concentration. But ATC seemed asleep to RIP to the lost souls so sad 😥😥✈️🇬🇧🇺🇸🙏👨✈️👨✈️💐✈️😥😥
@Elaine Blackhurst I too don't get why the F/O didn't abort, it's clear he was uncomfortable with the situation. I know I would have aborted, you might look foolish if your hunch was wrong, but you can live another day.
East ßeirut Yea I believe he did but he would never fly again if he lost a leg. The full thing seems unreal 2 pilots not noticing no runway lights and the third lot of eyes to help ATC never saw they were on the wrong runway it’s almost like a fantasy film but sadly it’s a true happening ✈️😥🙏🇬🇧🇺🇸👨✈️👨✈️💐😥😥✈️
@Robert Boiteau : I tend to agree ... *BUT* ... I am also painfully aware that watching this video is not a video of the actual event. So what the pilot and copilot saw from their cockpit may not have been as close to this video as we tend to believe. As a private pilot that almost always flies out of dinky airstrips and even more often out of tiny rural spots that aren't at all intended for aircraft, I am very aware that sometimes what we see isn't what we expect. And that works in both directions ... sometimes what we see is much better/easier than we expect, but sometimes what we see is worse/harder than we expect. Yes, clearly we must take very seriously the need to be conservative and "play it safe" whenever things look even slightly strange, suspicious or unexpected. Which is why virtually always when we "play it safe" we find we would have been just fine ignoring whatever looked a tad off. And we accept this, because we understand that it only takes one exception to end our lives (and the lives of others when we're not alone). As I said, I rarely fly to large airports, so I'll mention a couple facts that are true for me but might not be as true for pilots who often fly out of large airports on a regular basis. First, the view of unfamiliar airports from the cockpit often look "strange" and "not as expected" ... even when everything works out just fine, especially at night. There is quite a bit of variety and variation in airports, often due to the fact that the available space for an airport is very much specific to each airport, but also sometimes for no apparent good reason. Second, there is quite a bit of variety in the paint marks and lighting on different airports. And finally, it really is quite difficult to know how different the actual view was from the airplane on the night of the accident versus this video. While these videos tend to be excellent, it is impossible to be entirely precise.
@@maxbootstrap7397 -I think we can safely assume there are two large red "26's painted on the runway. that might have been a clue. regardless of what they saw, and you are correct we don't know what they saw, they said they noted there were no lights. that should have also been a clue.
@@maxbootstrap7397 But the F/O and Captain even voiced their concern about the lack of lights on the runway...BOTH OF THEM....no question one of them should have put the brakes on the take off.
What really struck me about the CVR dialogue was the very perfunctory way the pilots and the ATC communicated - too relaxed, too glib, too matter of fact - we’ve all done this before guys, so no problems, right? Sorry to be blunt, but....
@@itgetsworse601 They sound like two cocky cowboys , their judgment is covered with pride , as soon as you decide to grab God's beard you are done , believe me I know exactly how it feels
I flew for Comair for many years including many trips into LEX. The end of RWY 22 is confusing even when the Alpha taxiway is not closed. It was always a habit of mine was to put my ADI on the runway heading incase of a need of an emergency return to that runway.
I was a Comair captain in 1979 (the original Comair) and ready for take-off at CVG when the Comair flight that just lifted off lost power to the left engine of the Navajo, killing all onboard. Those days, we could put passengers in the right seat. The passenger of (that) flight was a low time pilot and decided he was going to save that flight by jamming his LEFT leg forward onto the LEFT rudder pedal. That did it for a nose dive in front of us that day. I personally can take credit for my activism days following the crash to force the NTSB abd FAA to mandate trained co-pilots in all Part 135 commuter airlines. I caused all our pilots to refuse flights with a passenger in the right seat. We forced management to keep the right seat empty. The original GOONS that owned COMAIR, forced me to resign after I revealed major mechanical issues to the news media. I caused the owners to sell Comair to a Newspaper in Cincinnati, and Comair was then sold to Delta. Those were the days when commuter airlines began to become an intricate part of and for major airlines.
I don't understand so who should be at fault? The airport that failed to install markers to distinguish takeoff runways even after numerous complaints BEFORE this incident, or the pilot? It's a shame really.. =(
@@battosaijenkins946 Unfortunately, everybody in a leadership role is at fault. Several flights navigated to the correct runway that night immediately prior to this tragedy. Same conditions, same instructions, no tragedy... only thing different was that the pilots successfully navigated to the correct line. Because of that, I would say the main fault falls on the pilot team (captain, f/o, anybody else who could have said ‘wait, did they say 22 or 26? Let’s confirm.’) then the airport. My understanding is that the airport has now resolved the runway confusion, despite the fact that lots of planes have successfully departed despite the error likely situation.
@@elmerfudd6305 Well, there would be markers/numbers at the hold short line, but it's possible the great big end of runway numbers "26" might have been to their right as they turned left onto the runway, i.e. they may not have had to taxi over them into takeoff position. Still, way too many clues missed that they were screwing the pooch.
I went to school with a guy who died on that flight heading to his honeymoon. It came down on the horse farm that my wife works for and they have erected a beautiful memorial on the site.
Flew from this airport a couple of months before this happened. I remember reading about scheduled maintenance work in the papers and asking my friend if it's safe for the airport to continue operating while work is underway.
So, so tragic. I get nervous watching these even though I already know what's going to happen. Excellent presentation albeit under terrible circumstances. I can't imagine, either, being the sole survivor and the cause of the crash. RIP
If you actually read about this incident, at the time the tower controller had no responsibility to monitor aircraft after clearing them for takeoff. The tower controller was also performing TRACON duties in addition to ground/runway/clearance duties, so they were essentially doing two jobs because the tower was not staffed properly. This has nothing to do with individual negligence on the part of the controller.
They also mentioned he was working alone, in violation of previous recommendations to always ensure a minimum of 2 controllers per shift, and he was dealing with other traffic.
@@baddrivingnyc I actually read the entire lengthy NTSB crash report on this incident and at the time of rollout to the runway and takeoff at this very small airport there was little to no other aircraft needing landing or takeoff attention so even though it was only one controller he could have easily monitored and warned the pilots they were lined up on a closed runway.
The problem with all these excellent videos on this channel and Alec’s channel is that everyone expects that past performance dictates pilot behavior in the future and it won’t unless the pilot is a perfect robot, not possible even with the tremendous amount of training pilots are subject to. Pilots will make mistakes because humans make mistakes despite their best intentions. I wish people would remember that.
Right. When a driver gets in a car crash, no one says, “He had 20,000 hours behind the wheel, I can’t believe he would make such a mistake.” They just simply say, “He made a mistake.”
@@tomcorwine3091 A single driver cannot be compared to a pilot who is responsible for dozens of people. Their amount of hours should prove how good they are.
Morten Kapa Did you watch the movie « some survivor » ? It’s about James Polehinke. I haven’t but I am going to eventually if I find it. Maybe it’s on the comments somewhere already by I am not going to read them all.
When I used to fly into KLEX before this accident I used to always be worried about crossing 26 on the taxi out to 22 when told to hold short (runway incursion) Bc they are (were) so close together. I never thought someone would mistake the two until after the fact. So tragic.
Wikipedia says that they were not the only ones who had trouble with this, there were 2 other cases were people couldn't tell 26 and 22 apart (tragedy didn't happen and could be prevented).
Excellent video. Thank you. So, so sad. I see that communication and the human factor are two common themes here. It's the same thing when there are errors in health care. Rest in peace to the victims of the crash. Peace to the families and friends of the victims. I hope FO Polehinke is doing okay---the best he can with his injuries and emotional trauma.
@@puremaga17 The checklist item for those instruments is only to confirm that they _appear_ to be working. Checking the compass against the runway heading would be a way to _confirm_ that A) the compass is definitely working, or B) it is not working, or C) you are on the wrong runway. Only "A" of those possibilities would indicate continuing the takeoff.
Our company employee was on this fateful flight...on his way from our Lexington Office to our Atlanta HQ for training. (I had met with this employee several weeks before this incident.) He had been scheduled to go out the day before, however, his reservation was later changed to this flight ...the next day. I held a memorial luncheon with his Lexington Office colleagues several weeks later...in memory of the employee....which was also attended by his wife. Memories were shared. He left behind his wife and a small baby.
This is what I'm always saying. There is no such thing as perfection in aviation. Plane crashes will continue to happen. Human error will always be a problem. They get tired, mad, hurried, forgetful, lazy, neglectful ... it will never end. Whenever humans are involved, failure is just around the corner.
You're quite right Susie. There's an old saying....If there is a possibility for an accident to happen, sooner or later it will happen. Think of Concorde - all it needed was a small piece of metal on the runway to be kicked up into the engine housing by the landing gear, and disaster followed. I believe that was caused by an improper repair having been carried out on the previous flight which departed that day.
WOW!!!! Excellent coverage and reportage!! As one whom also is 'itching' to get his pilot's 'creedos', it makes me even more grateful for my favourite Uncle's examples, of ''ironclad''-discipline in the cockpit, even with a 'dignitary' or 'higher-up'' with you. And, even more so, with one whom you take to or are very-friendly with. So very sad,
I'm a private pilot, and the biggest thing I fly is a Cessna 182. Nevertheless, in part because of this video, I set the heading bug to align with the runway I'm going to be taking off on or landing on to help me make sure I have the right one.
Isn't it weird how we can watch these videos and think these guys are literally moments away from dying but at that moment for them was like a normal day. It's a crazy life
YES LIFE IS A MYSTERY AND WILL REMAIN SO FOREVER.
Experienced crew, basic error, catastrophe ensues. An old story that has no happy ending.
@@My_Fair_Lady SORRY I THINK YOU MISS MY POINT,MISTAKES ARE MADE EVERYDAY WITHOUT DEATH, THE MORE COMPLICATED MACHINES INVENTED THE MORE PROBLEMS EXISTS.IF MAN WAS SUPPOSE TO FLY HE WOULD HAVE WINGS AT BIRTH, HOW MANY MORE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO DIE BECAUSE OF MISTAKES?????? ,I MAKE IT POINT NEVER TO GET ON A PLAN EVER, .
@@denieledwards6893 Man was meant to fly. That's why man invented airplanes. Why are you using the internet? It's unnatural. If man was supposed to do that, computers would exist in nature. Computers are very complicated machines with many problems.
@@alukuhito STUPID COMMENT...... COMPUTERS ARE NOT KILLING THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. JUST BECAUSE MAN'S INVENTS SOMETHING DOESN'T MEAN'S IT'S GOOD TO FOR THE WORLD.
I am a pilot. I want to tell you that you did a such a great job on this video , inspiring us to be better pilots BECAUSE of it, than those people will not have died in vain
Thank you for the important words
Thank you for being a safe pilot.
Thank you for your integrity.🌸
Thanks Mr. Rayburn. Stay safe yourself.
God bless you sir 🙏
Failing to check the compass heading to the runway before takeoff is what makes this so tragic to me. I will never forget this incident as I lost friends on that flight.
I'm sorry for your losted
It's so so hard to lose somebody. Much love to you and yours.
@@heyyitzrespawn I'm sorry for your English.
@@lbowsk He probably speaks more languages than you.
@@lbowsk I'm sorry for your rudeness.
So many of these crashes are so easily preventable, it's amazing how a slight lapse in concentration can be so disastrous.
Yes..like the tape over the static ports.So easily corrected but tragic
Lapse in concentration shouldn't be in your dictionary when you are a pilot.
yeah right
@JayMac I would not call it 'lapse in concentration'. I think you can call it complacency. The way the pre departure check was read is a typical example of complacency, just going through the motions without actually checking anything at all. That is why the question response was introduced in the first place. The PNF asks the 'questions', the PF checks and responds, but even then it sometimes becomes just a collection of words, especially when they have to do it multiple times per day.
The most disturbing to me is the check of the runway heading. That should be repeating the runway heading, so in this case Runway 22 and then physically look at the HDG bug and see where that one is pointed at. In this case it was 40 degrees off and nobody noticed it. That is truly piss poor.
I could here the casualness in their voices, like they werent being serious or paying attention.
That both pilots noted the lack of runway lights - and neither 'clicked' that something was amiss, is quite unbelievable!
What a horrible, unnecessary crash.
Pilot ego is the cause of many crashes. Afraid to admit to air traffic control, the passengers and even their colleague in the cockpit that they made a mistake and abort a landing or take-off they just plough on hoping for the best and often ending in disaster.
When the first officer had landed the night before several sections of runway lighting were out, he even mentioned this in the takeoff briefing so they were expecting some runway lights to be out. That’s why they mentioned it during the takeoff roll, but didn’t make the connection.
@@nocalsteve A critical error not noticing that the compasses, and heading indicators all indicated 260 vs 220 as well as the controller not noticing that they lined up on the wrong runway.
There were other factors involved but either way you look at it if they were paying attention to their instruments it is still a human error.
@@peteroconnor5005 Very true, pilots are sometimes their own worst enemies!!!!
That last yell before crashing is heart breaking
:(
i think he said pull up. talking so fast but not cool like before
@@halleffect1 I just hear a yell, but you could be right
@phunkyCW yeah man same here.
@@halleffect1 He didn't even get to finish the yell.
@@zuesgodofthunder9361 Zues, passengers never even got the chance to tell.
As a result of this crash I always make my students take a look at the compass after we line up on the runway, no matter how framilar it is to us.
It was drilled into me from day one on my PPL training.
It’s part of the checklist for a reason - somebody learned this lesson long ago and we should not have needed to learn it again. With the callout “Runway Heading” you point at the compass to focus your attention and actually _read it out_ . The habit of physically pointing to the focus of attention works against complacency.
@Diggity Diggit I thought the same thing too. They sounded super casual.
Yep. That's one of the lessons that was learned here. Every takeoff we do now, the PM looks at the HSI after takeoff power is set, makes sure the heading bug is at the top, and verbalizes "Heading checks" if it looks right, or calls an abort if it doesn't...
That's a great idea
My friend and high school quarterback, Bobby Meaux, was on this flight. Rest in peace, my friend.
Sorry for your loss, Bo.
How tragic. My condolences to you.
Sorry for your loss, Bo. Harrodsburg Meaux family?
@@kyjohn999 Yes. I was close with a lot of the Meaux family. Latemus was my best friend until he passed away last year. Do you know them?
@@boshack4467 I'm from Frankfort and have two older brothers. We all went to Frankfort High and battled against the Meaux family for a couple decades! I didn't know they had a family member on the ComAir flight. So sorry.
That shriek just moments before the impact sent chills down my spine. Respect to those who lost their lives!
I can't think of anything worse than to know you are going to die and there is nothing you can do to prevent it.
to know you do not have enough time to pull up before you hit the ground.
One survived
@@francinevandeyar7664 the first officer :(
Me too 😔😭
Sir, you have a kind heart.
You can hear the pilots on 2 occasions verify runway heading, with line up check, runway heading, but were clearly going thru the motion of a check list. As an instructor, complacency is a killer, it also seemed like they where very tired at that hour. The CVR is sobering and should be a reminder that complacency kills. Combined with tower not checking is the classic multi layered failure senerio.
Agreed, you can hear the comfort of doing something they love and are good at in their voices. Like I feel when driving out on the "open road" when all seems right. Every pilot should be just a little terrified at those important moments of a flight I guess.
Agreed, you can let this happen to you. Repeating checks without associating an action with them. You have to catch yourself and stop it.
I agree with you. The actual communication actually came across to me as unprofessional, but I guess complacency covers it too.
They sound half asleep and totally uninterested
their slurred, rushed speech is indicative of ritualistic behavior, like how flight attendants slur through their standard scripts. They were treating this situation as a completely inconsequential routine thing and were just going through the motions. It seems like pilots need to treat every moment as a completely new, potentially dangerous situation in which anything that can go wrong will go wrong. the controller shares some blame as well, also whatever manager scheduled him for 22 hours in the past 24 hours. they all treated the situation as completely not special at all, and just a routine thing
Being the only survivor in an accident you share responsibility for. That can't be easy.
You are telling facts
Thepoor guy suffers everyday with guilt and remorse . I saw him in a documentary called “Sole Survivor “
Happens to me all the time. You get used to it.
@@andreaphillips7595 thank you my dear.
@@ambercrombie789 no problem 😉
I’ve watched this video a few times. It’s so well done and each time in my head I keep hoping they notice.
Sadly for the passengers they don't.Also I feel the Capt should not reserve the right to pass the controls
Off.Your thought?
I was living in Lexington when this occurred, and I'd taken that exact flight MANY times. There is plenty of blame to go around for this one. It's not like this is Hartfield or LaGuardia, it's a very small single runway airport (they tried to take off on the light craft strip). But anyone familiar with what seemed like endless construction that had been going on will tell you, it is complete BS that the County wasn't held liable for some of the blame! Multiple flight crews had complained about how confusing the construction was making things there. But I was also Air Force for 10 years, and taking off on a runway with no lights?! Seriously?! This flight was a back & forth every hour, all day every day shuttle and with that comes complacency.
Amen. I hardly ever fly bit I heard all the time about the construction at the air port. Its was common conversation at that time. The county should have taken blame. But under certain laws they were protected.
Precisely ....government CYA....I grew up in a flying family from usaf fighter jock to 172s to 337 to Bonanzas to Barons to King Airs to Dukes and a pet T-28 and a couple of Lears thrown in
Oh and a Starship...Beech twin fan...leased....my dad had 15-16,000 plus hours....a serious pilot and I flew with him from age baby to 40
And I can tell you the tower should have noticed too....Lexington ain’t Hartsfield
I can only write as a passenger and someone who doesn't like flying very much as it is. But 2 things kind of stood out for me in this video and that is that the runways in general seemed too dark (but IDK if there's a visual reason for this) and it seems kind of strange that there were no numerical markings anywhere along the runway. Not painted on the ground or anything. I understand that there is a single number painted at the very end of the runway, but in this case it might have helped, especially with a cross-runway situation.
@@ih82r8 You are 100% correct about the darkness, and that is because there were NO lights. They mistakenly taxied onto the wrong runway! They turned onto the small craft strip, which is only used during the day. The airport had been under construction for a long time, and the taxiway to get to the end of the main flightline had changed and hadn't been repainted yet. Numerous flightcrews had complained that the signage being used was difficult to see. As for the numbers not being there, the surviving flight crew member said that they just "assumed" the numbers hadn't been repainted yet either.
This particular flight was an hourly bounce from Lex-Atl, & back EVERY hour, EVERY day, so the regular crew would have known all of this. This crew was filling in, so they had no idea. Bottomline is that the Lexington-Fayette County Government should have been found liable for this tragedy, but we all know how bulletproof our Gov't is today.
@@lowellfultz1990 You think the government is bulletproof now, just give it a few more years.
This was the SECOND incident of this nature at this airport, the first having been caught in time by an alert tower controller, and rerouted to the correct runway. Following the Comair tragedy, Runway 08-26 was decommissioned, and replaced by a slightly longer RWY 09-27, which does not intersect RWY 04-22, thus eliminating this recurrent source of error.
this is literally where im from and it’s literally heartbreaking knowing something like that happened somewhere that happened so close and honestly i don’t even remember hearing about it.
A near miss also happened in 2007 after this accident, but before Runway 26's decomission!
why they have shorter runways, for what purpose?
@@elmalloc smaller aircraft
Its hard to believe that two very competent pilots could make this mistake, a real tragedy.
haiwa tigere they had to be competant to get their wings. Unfortunately we are human beings that comes with us not being perfect ie we make mistakes but we get a second chance to learn from them but in this instance there was no second chance .As for the fake PIA. Pilots they were not fake most were ex Airforce pilots who had not swapped over their licence which made their applications for work as commercial pilots invalid
Pakistan is a young democracy it’s institutions are not strong yet it will take a decade of new Young educated leaders to come through to reign in all the malpractice in Pakistan
but under Imran Khan there is hope for the future. I would not be afraid on a PIA plane but I would on a Max as it is aerodynamically unsafe and no software fix can put that right . I know EASA has banned PIA and in 6 months if they have sorted out the mess they will be back in UK as it’s very popular here. ✈️🇬🇧👨✈️👩✈️
Complacent I think you meant?
Look at this bunch of losers who have probably never flown the line. Bunch of keyboard warriors.
No its not hard to believe at all.
So easy to make a mistake when you assume that everything you do is correct, just like the hundreds of previous takeoffs.
They sound like they're having a contest for who can come off as the most relaxed.
Yeah the "Joe Cool" croaky voices were annoying
yeah the one time the captain didnt play it by the book so it looks like.
They were probably horribly tired. The plane was leaving at 6 in the morning. If they were getting home at 11pm, that doesn't leave them much time for good sleep. It might explain their slurred speech too.
My father responded to this crash as a firefighter he said this was by far one of the worst accidents he had ever dealt with he was on the LFD at station 20 3rd shift. I still remember this vividly.
Hi
That last few seconds of audio was heartbreaking. Holy shit. I can't imagine how guilty that first officer must feel.
49 out of 50 died that night because someone wasn't paying attention...damnit, so sad.
Go back and listen to how many times Runway 22 was said, yet they still lined up on the wrong runway. I guess they never looked at their compass. That being said ATC should have bought contributing factor.
Sorry, but I didn't like their general attitude and speech. Way too much "oh, yeah". At one point on the CVR I wondered if they had a stewardess there doing hanky panky. Or if they were smoking something. That's what it sounded like. E.g. It sounds like the guy said, checklist "glued", which I guess is "cool" slang for "completed". Then they proceed to "glue" the airplane to the ground at 120mph. But they were "cool". Like their IQs.
terrible
@@waterwalker1315 Look things like that can happen, humans fuck up all the time on roadways, so something like this can be expected especially if this is not your home airport this was the first flight of the day with no other plane traffic being a small airport. My main point is human error will happen, so what is the point of a control tower, why are they built so high in the air to overlook the airport? This was the first flight of the fucking day with no other aircraft lined up like major airports, what were the dozen or so air traffic people doing, this was not the middle of the day with hundreds of planes coming and going.
@@popcorn-uz3tn There is text onscreen at 11:40 about the NTSB post-crash analysis of the events leading to the accident regarding the fact that there was only one FAA controller in the tower (in spite of an FAA memo directing them to have two on overnight shifts at the small Blue Grass field airport). It's difficult to be sure from the airport plan view at 6:15, but I suspect that from his perspective well to the southwest, the single controller in the tower could not easily see and confirm in the dark which runway the Comair jet was lining up on-his instructions to CROSS 26 and taxi to the longer runway were clear.
This was an early morning departure, and I suspect that fatigue played a role in the egregious failure of the flight crew to verify that the markings on the runway were for 22, not the shorter, unlit 26. They somehow lost track of the fact that no runway crossing ever occurred, failed to check their heading in position and see the standard runway markings which read "26," and were baffled by the lack of appropriate lighting on the shorter runway during the takeoff roll which they nevertheless continued, failing to recognize their peril.
This was an early morning flight, and the flight crew probably woke at their lodgings two to three hours before the 6:00 departure. Because there is little profit in their operations, Commuter flights that operate out of smaller airports are often manned by flight crew who are not provided with adequate sleep opportunities.
F/O="its weird there's no lights"
Captain="yeah, and a huge 26 where there should be a 22"
F/O="weird, ok lets go!"
Yeah, and we're on the wrong runway, but the hell with it. Nobody will ever know...
@@jimallen3392 yeah, nobody within the plane.
Ugh!!!!! so careless. Such a preventable accident.
A couple of nincompoops that night anyhow. Tsa’shame
how stupid can you be
I can’t imagine being the FO after this accident being the only survivor.
so true.
it's almost like an episode of "The Twilight Zone." This is one of the most tragic things I've ever heard of related to aviation. And I was working ramp service at RDU the day of the Air Florida 90 crash in DC, so I'm no stranger to the subject.
its like the only survivor in the northwest crash
@scooter Dave Why did you say '50 people died'?
Leg amputated. Brain damage, damaged lungs. He paid a price.
This crash happened a 25 minute drive from my house. I knew no one aboard the airplane. But one of my neighbors had a daughter on board. The neighbor committed suicide a few weeks later.
Apart from the same sadness I would feel for anyone to die in such tragic thing, I can't say I have any connection to it, apart from it being close to home. But I do know that in a relatively small community, 50 people dying affects a lot of people.
We must be close by each other because it’s about 35 minutes from me lol
This is so Sad! so sad.
@@andrewjackson3278 North of Richmond. When I say 25 minutes, it should be understood that I sometimes drive too fast.
Oh your poor neighbor. All that grief. So very sorry to hear this.
@@andrewjackson3278 - about 60 minutes for me in Jefferson County
Damn This channel really knows how to make it feel personal
I"m just about a 40 minute drive away from Bluegrass airport, as a person who has watched this channel for years, it's surreal to know that one of these tragic cases happened so close to me.
Wow! Sorry to hear about the accident and the loss of life. That's always tragic.
On a totally separate and unrelated point, I am blown away by the graphics and animations in your videos. Top notch!
It's called Microsoft Flight Simulator. Lots of very talented people have spent years on creating and revising this software.
It's easy to see how complacency had a hand in this accident. Even if audibly confirming the runway was on their checklist, I still doubt they would've caught the mistake. You can tell by the way they slur the words together when running thru the list. They're not so much checking things, they're just going thru the motions because that's the requirement.
One of the issues was the ATC.
Pilots never cross a runway without permission.
They pull up to it , tell the ATC they are there and wait for permission to cross it.
This time the ATC just told them they had permission to go all the way to runway 22,
(Which involved crossing 26).
They misinterpreted that as there was no runway between them and 22.....so they lined up on the first runway they came to.
What they were supposed to do was
1. Pull up to the edge of 26 and wait for permission to enter it.
2. Make a left onto runway 26
3. Travel down 26 a hundred feet.
4. Make a right turn off of 26
5. Wait for permission to enter 22.
6. Make a left onto 22.
This would require the ATC to give them permission to enter runways twice so to save time he just told them to go to 22 while they were still pulling away from the gate.
They missed that they were on the wrong runway partly to the fact that none of the vertical signs were illuminated and the runway numbers painted on the concrete were largely worn away.
The only solid proof they had that they were on the wrong runway was the heading indicator, which they both missed and the ATC briefly mentioning they had permission to cross 26 (but he did that long before they reached 26)
They screwed up , but the airport signs and the ATC made it easy for them to screw up.
@@glennchartrand5411 and this could happen to another flights, right?
@@chocolatnoir1108 it did, they had several aircraft take off from the wrong runway at that airporf.
@@glennchartrand5411 death trap🥲 thanks for great shares👌🏿💕
@@glennchartrand5411 Thank you for this explanation. I'm not a pilot, so the 26 confused the hell out of me and I wondered if maybe they couldn't see it because they were idling on top of it as they finished their checks???? I was going to watch again because I wasn't sure they'd confirmed runway 22, but from what we saw it seemed like that wouldn't have changed anything. They had already confirmed twice that that's where they were going, but were unaware that they were on 26? It just seemed like they could have confirmed 22 and crashed or confirmed 26 and crashed just the same and I couldn't figure out why the controller didn't seem to know where they were. Your comment made the whole situation tragically clear. It's almost never just one mistake and the person left with a burning aircraft (whether actual or metaphorical) isn't necessarily the one who deserves to be identified as the one responsible for the disaster.
I was trained always to cross check aircraft compass with runway heading during lineup check.40 degrees should have rang some bells, hard to believe with stated crew experience.
Lostcreek 1 yep, best time to do a compass check.
They set the heading bug for 22 then got to 26 and went yep heading confirmed. Talk about confirmation bias, they saw exactly what they were expecting to see.
john fisher .....and funny....no lights....hmmm
Very good point you make.
Amen
They were talking like a couple of cowboys and not paying attention to EVERY detail. So sad. 49 lives ended and one ruined... Edit: I just watched a few news items with James Polehinke talking about the accident. 14 years later he remains a broken man just trying to carry on. It is so damn heartbreaking.
😢🙏
Heartbreaking.
It is. His life might be a hell both for his body and soul.
@@Gunsandjewels you cannot judge another person's soul. The best you can do is pray that The Lord helps them to improve.
Kill 50 people and that's likely to happen.
Have you ever pulled into the driveway and realize you don't remember the ride home? Some things just become so much by rote it's a miracle more tragedies don't happen on the ground & off.
Not what we are paid for - or to do. Command Responsibility earns you the left seat.
I am constantly appalled at the lack of sterile cockpit in USA & ill disciplined/non-standard radio procedure/cockpit calls.
Great insight.
When they pushed back from the terminal they had one destination...Runway 22.
Or how about when you come out of the shopping center and forget where you parked your car?
That is one of the most terrifying feelings there is. When hubs was first in the Navy, we had one car. If I wanted/needed it, I had to go in to the ship with him, and drive home. I got accustomed to not remembering the drive home... until the morning I was almost home, and noticed I was in my pajamas. Holy cats, how the...? Totally messed with me.
Listen to how casual they sound whilst completing the checklists. The First Officer sounds more like a DJ giving details of the next track he's about to play for his listeners rather than a pilot going through an important list of checks. Complacency really is a killer.
he sounded cool af though until ..well you know.
@@stvstreett hes paralyzed now.
Notice daily in most businesses. People dont think or assume too much.
And who hasn't almost gone thru a red light or looked a second time to see a car you missed? And they said the captain was "by the book"! Read "Fate is the hunter" if you like aviation
There was some kind of 'cool', a kind of 'swagger' the captain was going for that seems totally out of place in the cockpit of a commercial passenger jetliner. Hate to say that after the poor guy lost his life. Hopefully the tightening of 'sterile cockpit' regulations has by now all but eliminated that cowboy mentality
When something doesn't look right, you stop the Aircraft!!!
Might have been too late to abort
too late to abort? both noted how strange it was that they had no lights. and they were bullshitting during taxi procedures.
@@paulazemeckis7835 really... aborting would've saved just about every person from dying
To late to abort
like the F/O said: Yeah !
I’ve been watching these videos the last few days, but for some reason I saw the title and remembered a classmate from highschool lost his little sister in a plane crash. I couldn’t remember the details but when I looked it up, I realized it was this flight. I wasn’t even close with this classmate but it always stuck with me how painful this must’ve and still is for him and his family. She was just 15 or 16 I believe. Her autopsy revealed smoke inhalation, meaning she was alive after impact...along with 15 other passengers. Poor, sweet girl.
thats haunting :(
I have watched roughly a dozen of your video's. and while some of them are heart breaking, I feel that you are providing a vital service to the men and women who make the air their office. keep up the good work.
This re-creation was so realistic, I thought I was watching the real thing.
lol to us
wait until he does this on flight sim 2020
There is one guy alive that watched the real thing. Can you imagine the (I don't even have a word).
Oh, come on! You can see it isn't the real deal but I have to say it was well done.
YEAH STEVIE WONDER - OK - YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE
Living in Louisville during this time, this was a huge story.
The surviving pilot has Survivor Guilt to add to his injuries, after having his leg amputated, he is left with a severe brain injury.
Very Sad Indeed.
I just watched a video of the guy. Doesn't look to have any brain injuries
@@docholladay7638 yeah you cant just *look* at a person and see their internal injuries..
Besides that, there are a lot of different levels of severity of how much he was hurt as well as the emotional trauma.
@@dafeef5555 yea thats true
@@docholladay7638 Could you please share the video you were watching? Or even just the mans name so I could look up the story please
Edit:my apologies I completely forgot that the video had his name
@@docholladay7638 Also just to clarify I wasn't trying to be snarky, I'm being genuine. I'd like to look up some more stuff on this particular accident.(: thanks in advance
My friend Larry was on that airplane. He was a nice and really smart guy.
@@ronichapman8177 it was such a weird experience when this happened . I talked to him and he said he had to take a trip the next morning. I said I did too, but I was going to drive because I was going to Cincinnati , a couple hours away. I offered to take him to the airport there, assuming he'd be flying out of Cincinnati . He said he'd be flying out of Lexington and I was surprised because I didn't know there was an airport there. I got up in the morning and was driving down I75 when I heard on the radio that a plane had crashed on takeoff from Lexington. It was so weird because I only found out the previous night that the airport existed. I got nervous but thought ' no way was that LTs plane' . But it was
@@ronichapman8177 thank you
When that scream came i almost cried 😓 Rest in peace to all who perished and i hope the first officer is doing well💖
random Ezzer well he kinda killed 48 people
@@twvs5 he didnt intend to tho
@tinwoods he suffered brain damage, so he may remember nothing.
Me too
I mean I got worried
I also knew 4 people on this flight. 2 had just been married. Great people. A huge loss for my hometown
Very sorry to hear
That is so heartbreaking. Is it true that the honeymoon couple were buried together in a oversized casket? So so tragic.
@@marlonisaac1 I'm not sure. I can find out from my sister she was really close the Johnathan.
@@captainmarvel9610 Oh ok that's fine you don't have to go through the trouble. I just read a comment in another video stating they were and was just curious. So sad and tragic.
@@marlonisaac1 yeah it was. The both were really really good kids.
"V1...rotate...whoa!" What a terrifiying moment!!
Can i just say as an extremely anxious flyer (even looking at a plane gives me chills) i find these videos help me. I appreciate all the information that tells you exactly what went wrong and why. Something is always changed and improved as a result. So thank you for making me feel more at peace with the aircraft🧡
But why does a tragedy always have to happen before any improvements are done? The same thing with our Infrastructure. Nobody gives a damn until our bridges collapse and people die as a result of it. Fires in high rise buildings too because they aren't kept up to code.
Same here, but they don't relax me, they show me that planes full of people crashing is a regular thing. These videos are never-ending. Theres a whole list of them in the sidebar lol.
I have to say that I find this effect on you very weird. For me it is exactly the opposite: these videos show me that deadly accidents have happened a LOT and also can and will happen bc of all sorts of reasons, from mistakes by the pilots, technical issues, misunderstandings, weather conditions and many other reasons(or a combination of several factors) which just tells me that flying in a plane is not and will never be a 100% controllable and safe thing. And I don't want to die in a horrific way like that. So the effect is has on me is that I will NEVER in my life fly again. I'll gladly stay on the ground forever.
As a retired Tower controller I can’t help but to say the controller clearly wasn’t looking at all out of the windows. All of this was preventable . Pilots made a mistake but that’s a Tower controllers basic mandate. Tragic
They stayed on Runway 26 when they were told to hold there and then take runway 22 for takeoff.That detail completely skipped the attention of both pilots.
Following the crash, Bluegrass Airport changed the layout so short runways no longer intersect with longer ones.
A memorial sits at the University of Kentucky Arboretum to honor victims of the crash.
The Captain navigated the taxi and set it up for take off, handing it off doomed. Captain owns this one.
I *really* do not understand how a pilot can make a mistake like this, especially if this video is accurate. You've got the friggin' runway number *RIGHT. THERE. ON. THE. GROUND.* and the tower *TOLD* you which runway you were to depart from!!!!!
I'd sue the hell out of Comair or Delta or whoever. That was just sloppy on the part of the flight crew. 🤬
Sorry, you're wrong. They were not told to hold before crossing 26. See 6:00 Why the captain stopped there, we don't know. Why ATC didn't see them stop there, we don't know. We don't know why ATC didn't see them go to runway 26 - and not question that action.
@@millomweb 2 possible reasons. Lack of ground radar. High workload due to single ATC instead of the advised 2-person shift.
@@michaelscott356 Can anyone remember why they put plane controllers in a room on top of a tower ?
How on earth any of them understand a word anyone is saying is utterly beyond me, I can't even with subtitles!
EXACTLY! WAS WONDERING THE SAME THING. INCREDIBLE!
😂😂😂 true
Me too
Same
Oh, my thoughts Exactly!!
I remember this one well. Yes they violated the sterile cockpit but not as badly as others I've heard seen in crashes. Very humbling to see how something so seemingly simple can cause such devastation.
Sterile cockpit is fine in itself, but it can't just be a vacuum. The time needs to be used to redundantly check that nothing has been taken for granted.
I live in Nashville, TN. This airport is on a short drive for us. So, geographically, it is close although not one we would normally use. I remember very well when this happened. It was only a short time after the family from Nebraska crashed and the little girl was the only survivor. She hiked several miles at night to get help. Very sad.
@@belewis ohthat was also the same year, I think that a small plane crashed at the YMCA in Bellevue/Nashville killing all on board.
You should have ended that sentence at 'Yes they violated the sterile cockpit'. It's either sterile or not. There are no degrees or levels of yes or no bullcrap. These dudes were flying on ego, not exhaustion, not anything else. Forty-nine innocent people paid the price for their lack of professionalism.
When a plumber is unprofessional, a house gets flooded with sewage. People become angry. Both pilots making the same mistake at the same time is a rare occurrence, thankfully.
This is an incredibly well made video.
It is both sympathetic to the souls onboard, and it captures the mistake so well, and demonstrates how it was not obvious what was wrong until the last moment.
Airport lighting and signage could be greatly improved to avert this. Also, the need to cross check aircraft heading with runway heading and ATC confirmation.
RIP
Mark Freeman: when you say "the video demonstrates how it was not obvious what was wrong until the last moment", you quite clearly are speaking as a non-pilot lay person. I believe most pilots watching this video would be VERY uncomfortable with the sequence of events. Especially if they'd been able to hear the "banned" cockpit smalltalk!
I just wanted to say the effort you put in to make these videos is greatly appreciated by me and you are my favourite youtuber! Well done and keep up the good work. 😉
Thanks a lot! ❤️
Smug praise comments like this are so disappointing and unnecessary. Like or dislike. Unoriginal idiots that just want hearts that mean nothing in the real world.
Love this channel
@@ARedMotorcycle Bitter or twisted?
@@ARedMotorcycle I mean this in a very serious way - what on earth is wrong with you that you cannot understand the concept of gratitude.
It's just to let the person know they did a good job and thank you shfjzncbdb
I've watched quite a few episodes from the Flight Channel but I find this one to be the most heartbreaking. Given the experience of the pilots and their general camaraderie, Just terribly sad to think that a small series of missteps could result in something so tragically catastrophic.
I'm willing to bet these two didn't have military backgrounds.
A good drill sarge would've screamed a little humility into them. As a student of human behaviour, I still think attitude (not the plane's) played a significant role here.)
I was one of the agent that had the awful job of advice the family. After that incident I went into major depression, had to go on medication. Finally after 2 years I could no longer reform my job and became mentally disabled. I stombled on this video all the memories. I ask God to please continue to comfort the families.
I'm sure everyone watching this must have heartfelt sympathy for anyone put into the position that you were in just 'doing your job'. No words or actions can provide comfort for you, but I hope your thoughts don't linger any longer than necessary for your well being. Bless you!
@@blackpoolrox6475 thank you
I was there that morning. I was on the next flight to Houston. I remember the airport closing and we took cabs to Cincinnati. My prayers are with you.
Bless u
@@morcocaineok, who cares
I live in Lexington and was growing up here when this accident happened. I was super young at the time so it didn't impact me personally, but we have a beautiful sculpture here at the University of Kentucky to commemorate the ones who died. Seems like such a simple mistake too, I feel awful for the F/O here. Thankfully I'm not aware of anyone in the area who actively hates the guy and despite the tragic nature of it, the community seems to have healed as much as it can.
My cousin was one of the pilots. He was an awesome guy. He took my older brothers and i to watch ohio state wrestling matches and on fishing trips as a young kid. I was in 7th grade when this happened and still think about it all the time.
Woah, I'm really sorry to hear that Andrew. I hope you have great memories of the man.
God Bless your family.
I’m very sorry Andrew , my heart hurts for you 😟
I'm so sorry and God bless you and your family to keep you safe.
I'm sorry you all had to go through that pain. Thoughts and prayers are with you all!
The whole time I'm watching this I'm wondering "why are they referring to runway 22 when I see 26?"
Because they were stupid and talking and chatting instead of flying.
SAME I'm dyslexic and I'm wondering too but we are also RELAXED watching a video and not running major checklists and focused on 500 other things
The sound of their voices shows how they thought they were badasses a d think they had it all under control. Idits
@@elle4520 whjch is the reason that most major airplane mfgs try to simplify even automate the number of functions required to operate a plane safely.
It is also a matter of NTSB concern when they review an accident.
I think of it like a GRE test. The problem is that you don't die in a fireball if you get a few questions wrong on the GRE. That can happen fairly easily if the flight crew make enough bad decisions.
One of the things that I try to emphasize in my.line of work is to establish default configurations that are set up with the click of a button. Known-good configurations that will get a noob up and running safely. I watch thesr videos and I can't help but see that in many videos (which are plane dependent) not only do they miss checklist items they also misfire on checklist items and there is no way to veriffy that the checklist was actually done completely or correctly.
And it just does not help to issue crew-reminders when the crew simply is not concerned with the reminder issue. They are distracted...worried about something else. Especially when you have a 100 item prefligt checklist, and 4 other checklists on top of that. That is a recipie for disaster.
THEN you have twin runways 26L and 26R. It is night and dark out no visible indicators because they are only painted on the ground and the crew is still going through preflight. They look up and see a yellow even ref light on the runway indicating thwt the runway is closed instead of a green light.indicating that it is open.and dismiss it as a lighting error...because they can't see what runway they are on. They cannot even see the runway lights for the runway they are supposed to be on? They just roll off down a dark runway?
So the problem there is that there are multiple problems that led to this amd multiole problems that the flight can run into and they could and probably have done this in the past without a problem. But this time the runway is UR. Or it is too short. Or a planr is landing on it or a plane is on it waiting for takeoff clearance. It's a roll of the dice repeated every flight until it comes up boxcars. If they aborted takeoff with every problem and regularly put the plane in for "minor repairs" then how often would they actually fly?
I think you got to be on the ball all the time when your in the flight deck..dosent matter if your highest honours captain, and 30,000 hours flying, or very good co pilot, do your checks and not being complacent like I can do this blindfolded attitude.. it takes one little mistake to turn into a catastrophe..!!!
Just like cars; be extra careful of “familiar” surroundings, don’t let them make you complacent.
I read somewhere that most accidents after long trips happen just a couple miles from home.
The emotions of us humans/pilots go within a split second from "I think I'm forgetting something" to "We're pro's, we know what we are doing" to "What are we doing again?"
The music in these videos captures somber feelings very well. In the few videos where everyone survives, the music captures that also.
The FO punishment for his mistake, was his survival. What a terrible thing to live with.
Exactly! When all his passengers and crew were killed, and he will live forever knowing it was entirely him and his Captain's doing!
Damn
I won't pin the entire responsibility on him. Accidents in aviation is almost always a result of multiple protocols being ignored or failure of multiple redundancies that are supposed to prevent it. There are no accidents with only 1 cause. There's a theory behind it known as the swiss cheese theory. Yes, he was a very unprofessional pilot and the liability will be on him in the court of law but safety is also a shared responsibility between ATC, the airport, and everyone working there.
thats for dam sure flight 401 first officer he still lives but we all makes mistakes you dont get over this shit until you die think of flight 232 1989 yes a lot died but a lot lived that s the god wonted it to be yes it s sad and may god rest there souls
Larry Dockery Why bring up god and an entirely different flight other than the one we’re watching. You just can’t pick and choose to use the word god based on number of fatalities. No fatalities, god had a hand on it. No survivors, no mention of god whatsoever.
For some reason this really hit me more than any other crash video I've seen. The sheer avoidability of it all, the screams at the end, the terrible guilt the f/o as the sole survivor must feel...just horrible the whole thing. RIP to all.
It is insane. A routine flight, and a normal takeoff turned tragic from one poor judgement by the pilots not to confirm the runway, even when the runway lights were off, which should of at least flagged enough caution to ask ATC if they were on the right runway. It makes my stomach sink just thinking they saw no lights and said...fuck it...let’s proceed. Once simple communication would have changed everything
@@Sonnylintag yes, I hope all pilots study crashes like these so they never make the same avoidable mistakes.
It is amazing to me that there are not a lot more accidents based solely on failure to properly understand and communicate. The ATC's and pilots seem to have a competition to see who can speak the fastest and most unintelligible.
Actually that garbled speaking is common in aviation
@@JustRememberWhoYoureWorkingFor Well it shouldn't be
Fully agree if it wasn’t on the screen in writing I wouldn’t be able to understand the messages they are so garbled and considering the importance of getting it right it’s not acceptable.
It's a "Who's got the bigger one!" ego thing. Been a pilot for many years and I have never understood that. You can just hear the ego oozing from the F.O.'s mouth throughout the entire sequence from checklisting to ATC comms. So ridiculous. Speak plainly on a plane!
I have the same problem in the drivethrough at McDonalds
When the captain said "V1 rotate whoa"
I felt that
Oh crap, we are going to get shredded by towers!
me too 😖😢
Same, I felt the knot in my stomach
A really horrific thought, in 1993 an identical incident at the same airport was narrowly avoided as an aircraft lined up on 26 after being cleared for 22. They began powering up to take off but realized in time and managed to stop just short of the end of the runway.
Even though I live near here, I had never heard of the other incident until now. After seeing this video I looked up the history of the airport.
Yay another great video! RIP to all who perished in this crash, I also saw the first officer on this flight who is also in the documentary of Lone survivors I think
is this documentary available online someplace? :) thank you!
Poor bloke. It was kind of his fault, I'm not sure I could live with that knowledge.
@@silver-eyedandrhesusnegati9733 yeah, he was partially responsible for the error, but I still feel badly for him. I think I'd personally rather die than be the only survivor.
We all make mistakes. Fortunately, most mistakes don't kill 49 people.
@@Crisco8624 If you search Cecilia Crocker (The sole survivor of Northwest flight 255) the first search result by ABC News titled: " Lone survivor of 1987 plane crash breaks silence" at around 2:11 Comair flight 5191 sole survivor will be featured.
@@cori189 Thank you very much for that link.
I enjoy the heck out of these videos. You do great work. My late father was a Navy and later a TWA pilot. He would have loved your videos, and I wish he were still here to watch them with me.
#RoadTo1Mil
Congrats on this channel! You can get that last 7k. I really appreciate the uploads. No-one else does a better job animating this.
I remember when this happened. My family and I were watching the aftermath on TV in shock. A couple from my hometown, who had just gotten married 12 hours before and were travelling to their honeymoon destination, were lost on this flight. Rest in peace, Jon and Scarlett.
So sad for this couple and for everyone on this flight. RIP. I hope the F/O has found some peace.
The FO, especially, sounded way too lackadaisical imo during the whole lead up process.
I agree, and could hardly understand a word they were saying, and I'm
sure Air Traffic Controllers felt the same way. They should be clearly
instructed to speak "clearly" -- or no clearance to take off. Everyone has
to know what's going on.
Was the F/O
high?
@@dennisxyz5784
No.
@@grantp4022 I kept thinking the same about the 1st O. He sounded like he was trying to eat the mic, nothing but a bunch of mumbling. But I'm sure in his head he sounded way cool.
@Molochness to be fair, he was the only one who didn't die
I had a friend who missed this flight. This was his connection. Still shook him up.
@@bubbahotepp66 Hi troll. I don't lie. His name was David M. and he was a professor at the University of Kentucky.
My main take away from this is how did it get to 2006 without procedures in place to avoid such a scenario (particularly in the dark) given so many airports have multiple and/or old runways? Also shows how sharp pilots have to be at all times
I admire the quality of these vidoes and the work that goes into this.
come on man, just 7k more subs to a mill !!!!
Just subscribed today. Showed up in my suggestions after binging AOPA's Accident Case Study videos.
1million plus subs now.
I would like to hear the audio of them talking about unrelated topics. That's the part where paying attention mattered and the flying public is trusting the pilots to focus.
They were "gossiping" about work (promotions, pay scales, complaining about "having to deal with a lot of Brits and Australians") stuff like that. You can read the whole transcript here www.tailstrike.com/270806.pdf
@@clsinstl "yeah but you gotta deal with a lot of Brits and Australians. you
know it some of these Brits are a little up tight.", yes, they get a little miffed if you try to take off from the wrong runway ;-)
@@clsinstl Did you litigate this?
@@NeumsFor9 it's on the NSTB report, so yeah.
If the runways had numbers on them visible to the pilot he would have known he was on the wrong one.
As a Marine I was 1 of 2 survivors out of a group of 16, a little bit around the corner from being a lone survivor. Neither myself nor my buddy ever had lasting effects of survivors guilt. I actually never really had any, whereas my buddy did for a few weeks. I suppose some people suffer from it, more or less than others. Although I was of course, extremely heartbroken over the loss of my comrades, I always felt like life and death were just random acts anyway. It doesn't matter who or depend on a why or a where, people are born and people die. It's all just a random draw.
May peace find everyone!
You probably also didn't feel responsible for their deaths ... makes a massive difference.
But also, people are definitely wired differently. Some people are able to compartmentalize. A great skill to have if you are a fire person or a cop (for example).
Some of us aren't.
And if you aren't, AND you feel responsible, then it can destroy you.
Semper
Thank you for your service Tim, very sorry for your loss of comrades
@@michaelbechtel4944 Thank you sir. It's much appreciated!
I believe God always has a reason.
Roll on 18th August, Microsoft Flight Sim 2020 is released with every plane/ airport/location on the planet in 4K even your own home, these Videos will look even more stunning than they already do.
Great work BTW we watch them all. Awful incident.
That end of the runway scared me even in this graphics level. I can only imagine the panic it would've caused me on the new simulator. Sant for those pilots at that situation.
im not sure about that "airport" one in 4k because on the list itself theres like 45 airport "handcrafted" so the other 30-40 thousands airport would be AI generated
@@The_epic_chicken the specs they listed aren't that demanding. my computer is more powerful than their "optimal" settings.
@@GraveUypo Same
How many hours goes into making a video like this? I bet many. A+
First like :)
Bet
I've wondered the same thing.
Furthermore, I wonder how many dollars youtube sends you for 1.1 million views?
20 AT LEAST!
complacency , is the bane of all pilots, i had one bout with it, it almost killed my entire family. since, i check and double check then check again.
i took off on an old runway at night , same heading as the active .in a king air. and barely cleared a grader sitting on the end of the now taxiway. small airport with no functioning lighting.
THAT'LL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.
That's why I never fly at night.
that must have been so scary
@@samreichman8643
its etched in my brain.
It didn’t though. Forget about it and move on. Words I live by. 😊
@@runawayplane6166 If you forget your mistakes, they will be words to die by.
One of the best channels on TH-cam, hands down.
Imagine no guiding Runway lights yet the Pilot continued the only visible sign for takeoff ignored I’m at a loss to know why, This was totally contrary to their training both are to blame so sad indeed a moments lack of concentration. But ATC seemed asleep to RIP to the lost souls so sad 😥😥✈️🇬🇧🇺🇸🙏👨✈️👨✈️💐✈️😥😥
@Elaine Blackhurst
I too don't get why the F/O didn't abort, it's clear he was uncomfortable with the situation. I know I would have aborted, you might look foolish if your hunch was wrong, but you can live another day.
East ßeirut Yea I believe he did but he would never fly again if he lost a leg. The full thing seems unreal 2 pilots not noticing no runway lights and the third lot of eyes to help ATC never saw they were on the wrong runway it’s almost like a fantasy film but sadly it’s a true happening
✈️😥🙏🇬🇧🇺🇸👨✈️👨✈️💐😥😥✈️
@Robert Boiteau : I tend to agree ... *BUT* ... I am also painfully aware that watching this video is not a video of the actual event. So what the pilot and copilot saw from their cockpit may not have been as close to this video as we tend to believe.
As a private pilot that almost always flies out of dinky airstrips and even more often out of tiny rural spots that aren't at all intended for aircraft, I am very aware that sometimes what we see isn't what we expect. And that works in both directions ... sometimes what we see is much better/easier than we expect, but sometimes what we see is worse/harder than we expect.
Yes, clearly we must take very seriously the need to be conservative and "play it safe" whenever things look even slightly strange, suspicious or unexpected. Which is why virtually always when we "play it safe" we find we would have been just fine ignoring whatever looked a tad off. And we accept this, because we understand that it only takes one exception to end our lives (and the lives of others when we're not alone).
As I said, I rarely fly to large airports, so I'll mention a couple facts that are true for me but might not be as true for pilots who often fly out of large airports on a regular basis. First, the view of unfamiliar airports from the cockpit often look "strange" and "not as expected" ... even when everything works out just fine, especially at night. There is quite a bit of variety and variation in airports, often due to the fact that the available space for an airport is very much specific to each airport, but also sometimes for no apparent good reason. Second, there is quite a bit of variety in the paint marks and lighting on different airports.
And finally, it really is quite difficult to know how different the actual view was from the airplane on the night of the accident versus this video. While these videos tend to be excellent, it is impossible to be entirely precise.
@@maxbootstrap7397 -I think we can safely assume there are two large red "26's painted on the runway. that might have been a clue.
regardless of what they saw, and you are correct we don't know what they saw, they said they noted there were no lights.
that should have also been a clue.
@@maxbootstrap7397 But the F/O and Captain even voiced their concern about the lack of lights on the runway...BOTH OF THEM....no question one of them should have put the brakes on the take off.
I thought my head was gonna explode when I heard him say, "it's weird with no lights."
Maybe you should see a doctor.
@@innocentbystander3798 😅
Love the level of ambiance you bring with your uploads! It truly sets your work above all others!
What really struck me about the CVR dialogue was the very perfunctory way the pilots and the ATC communicated - too relaxed, too glib, too matter of fact - we’ve all done this before guys, so no problems, right? Sorry to be blunt, but....
Whet are they supposed to sound like?? It's their usual way of doing things
It’s how they talk every day at every airport. You’re only listen to this one because it ended badly.
@@itgetsworse601 They sound like two cocky cowboys , their judgment is covered with pride , as soon as you decide to grab God's beard you are done , believe me I know exactly how it feels
@@sergioneo1576 God's beard? What does it feel like?
I agree, hard to understand, sounded like he was talking ghetto, not serious.
I flew for Comair for many years including many trips into LEX. The end of RWY 22 is confusing even when the Alpha taxiway is not closed. It was always a habit of mine was to put my ADI on the runway heading incase of a need of an emergency return to that runway.
I was a Comair captain in 1979 (the original Comair) and ready for take-off at CVG when the Comair flight that just lifted off lost power to the left engine of the Navajo, killing all onboard. Those days, we could put passengers in the right seat. The passenger of (that) flight was a low time pilot and decided he was going to save that flight by jamming his LEFT leg forward onto the LEFT rudder pedal. That did it for a nose dive in front of us that day. I personally can take credit for my activism days following the crash to force the NTSB abd FAA to mandate trained co-pilots in all Part 135 commuter airlines. I caused all our pilots to refuse flights with a passenger in the right seat. We forced management to keep the right seat empty. The original GOONS that owned COMAIR, forced me to resign after I revealed major mechanical issues to the news media. I caused the owners to sell Comair to a Newspaper in Cincinnati, and Comair was then sold to Delta. Those were the days when commuter airlines began to become an intricate part of and for major airlines.
So the captain navigated the plane to the wrong line, then turned over controls to the F/O... at the wrong line.
I don't understand so who should be at fault? The airport that failed to install markers to distinguish takeoff runways even after numerous complaints BEFORE this incident, or the pilot? It's a shame really.. =(
@@battosaijenkins946 Unfortunately, everybody in a leadership role is at fault. Several flights navigated to the correct runway that night immediately prior to this tragedy. Same conditions, same instructions, no tragedy... only thing different was that the pilots successfully navigated to the correct line. Because of that, I would say the main fault falls on the pilot team (captain, f/o, anybody else who could have said ‘wait, did they say 22 or 26? Let’s confirm.’) then the airport. My understanding is that the airport has now resolved the runway confusion, despite the fact that lots of planes have successfully departed despite the error likely situation.
All I kept hearing is runway 22, and then they go on runway 26... i dont get it, can they see the numbers from the cockpit..?
@@elmerfudd6305 Well, the numbers "2" and "6" must look extremely similar at night, maybe?
@@elmerfudd6305 Well, there would be markers/numbers at the hold short line, but it's possible the great big end of runway numbers "26" might have been to their right as they turned left onto the runway, i.e. they may not have had to taxi over them into takeoff position. Still, way too many clues missed that they were screwing the pooch.
I went to school with a guy who died on that flight heading to his honeymoon. It came down on the horse farm that my wife works for and they have erected a beautiful memorial on the site.
Yeah that's right next to Keeneland. I used to work in the racehorse biz.
I met a German girl in England who was going to school in France. We danced the Mississippi at an Alpha Cappa dance.
What you guys create is just phenomenal take a bow team!
It's always your last mistake, however minor, that gets you. No lights on the runway should have alerted the flight crew that something was untoward.
Exactamundo. Do an EMERGENCY BRAKING and THRUST REVERSAL. This wasn"t a huge aircraft. Idiots.
Kinda like you stop looking for something cuz you find it in your "the last place you look?". Ahhhh, yeah.
Flew from this airport a couple of months before this happened. I remember reading about scheduled maintenance work in the papers and asking my friend if it's safe for the airport to continue operating while work is underway.
You are a great aviation master I am impressed by your hard work and skills I like your videos I am a aviation enthusiast as well I am your fan!!!
Great job. What a shame, none of this should have happened if everyone did what they were supposed to do, absolutely terrible.
So, so tragic. I get nervous watching these even though I already know what's going to happen. Excellent presentation albeit under terrible circumstances. I can't imagine, either, being the sole survivor and the cause of the crash. RIP
His left leg didn't survive
The controller had plenty of time to warn the pilots they were on the wrong runway at this small airport. Total incompetence.
If you actually read about this incident, at the time the tower controller had no responsibility to monitor aircraft after clearing them for takeoff. The tower controller was also performing TRACON duties in addition to ground/runway/clearance duties, so they were essentially doing two jobs because the tower was not staffed properly. This has nothing to do with individual negligence on the part of the controller.
They also mentioned he was working alone, in violation of previous recommendations to always ensure a minimum of 2 controllers per shift, and he was dealing with other traffic.
@@baddrivingnyc I actually read the entire lengthy NTSB crash report on this incident and at the time of rollout to the runway and takeoff at this very small airport there was little to no other aircraft needing landing or takeoff attention so even though it was only one controller he could have easily monitored and warned the pilots they were lined up on a closed runway.
He was playing video games or sleepes.
@@baddrivingnyc OH YESS IT DOES I!
The problem with all these excellent videos on this channel and Alec’s channel is that everyone expects that past performance dictates pilot behavior in the future and it won’t unless the pilot is a perfect robot, not possible even with the tremendous amount of training pilots are subject to. Pilots will make mistakes because humans make mistakes despite their best intentions. I wish people would remember that.
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Right. When a driver gets in a car crash, no one says, “He had 20,000 hours behind the wheel, I can’t believe he would make such a mistake.” They just simply say, “He made a mistake.”
Thank you for interjecting some common sense.
@@tomcorwine3091 A single driver cannot be compared to a pilot who is responsible for dozens of people. Their amount of hours should prove how good they are.
@@tomcorwine3091 Especially when they have multiple people watching and guiding them.
these videos should be mandatory view for all pilots... great video it's just sad so many people lost.
when you get too comfortable...
Indeed. A classic case of "We're just going to...."
@@thefreedomguyuk what an insult to the innocent people who died on that plane
Morten Kapa
Did you watch the movie « some survivor » ? It’s about James Polehinke.
I haven’t but I am going to eventually if I find it.
Maybe it’s on the comments somewhere already by I am not going to read them all.
Morten Kapa
Look at this you see the actual accident
www.airlive.net/onthisday-in-2006-comair-flight-5191-crashes-on-takeoff-from-the-wrong-runway/
So neither guy sees the giant 26!!?? Wtfo. I'm barely paying attention and noticed that right away. Smh fp
When I used to fly into KLEX before this accident I used to always be worried about crossing 26 on the taxi out to 22 when told to hold short (runway incursion) Bc they are (were) so close together. I never thought someone would mistake the two until after the fact. So tragic.
Wikipedia says that they were not the only ones who had trouble with this, there were 2 other cases were people couldn't tell 26 and 22 apart (tragedy didn't happen and could be prevented).
I remember this day when my husband called me from the Lexington Fire Department to tell me this was happening. So sad. I was at work 15 miles away.
Excellent video. Thank you. So, so sad. I see that communication and the human factor are two common themes here. It's the same thing when there are errors in health care. Rest in peace to the victims of the crash. Peace to the families and friends of the victims. I hope FO Polehinke is doing okay---the best he can with his injuries and emotional trauma.
“Fly runway heading cleared for takeoff” to think maybe if the tower said “cleared for takeoff 22” it coulda been one last reminder.
Being lined up on the runway centerline and not having the compass match the runway number reasonably close would be another big clue.
@@hshs5756 Sadly the "Heading Indicator/Altimeters" Set is on the Before Taxi Checklist on the CRJ-100ER.. but still I agree!
ATC clearing them for takeoff on 22, the runway they thought they were on, wouldn't have changed anything.
@@puremaga17 The checklist item for those instruments is only to confirm that they _appear_ to be working. Checking the compass against the runway heading would be a way to _confirm_ that A) the compass is definitely working, or B) it is not working, or C) you are on the wrong runway. Only "A" of those possibilities would indicate continuing the takeoff.
@@hshs5756 I do not disagree with you, sadly it did not get done. Take care 😃
Our company employee was on this fateful flight...on his way from our Lexington Office to our Atlanta HQ for training. (I had met with this employee several weeks before this incident.) He had been scheduled to go out the day before, however, his reservation was later changed to this flight ...the next day. I held a memorial luncheon with his Lexington Office colleagues several weeks later...in memory of the employee....which was also attended by his wife. Memories were shared. He left behind his wife and a small baby.
This is what I'm always saying. There is no such thing as perfection in aviation. Plane crashes will continue to happen. Human error will always be a problem. They get tired, mad, hurried, forgetful, lazy, neglectful ... it will never end. Whenever humans are involved, failure is just around the corner.
You're quite right Susie.
There's an old saying....If there is a possibility for an accident to happen, sooner or later it will happen.
Think of Concorde - all it needed was a small piece of metal on the runway to be kicked up into the engine housing by the landing gear, and disaster followed.
I believe that was caused by an improper repair having been carried out on the previous flight which departed that day.
WOW!!!! Excellent coverage and reportage!! As one whom also is 'itching' to get his pilot's 'creedos', it makes me even more grateful for my favourite Uncle's examples, of ''ironclad''-discipline in the cockpit, even with a 'dignitary' or 'higher-up'' with you. And, even more so, with one whom you take to or are very-friendly with. So very sad,
The vids with audio are especially tragic. RIP to those who died. Great vids, great addictive channel, thanks
Amazing graphics! RIP to those who perished in the crash and prayers to the F/O who survived..🙏
This is madness, a double confirmation from ATC to guide to the assigned runway is not done by both officers
I'm a private pilot, and the biggest thing I fly is a Cessna 182. Nevertheless, in part because of this video, I set the heading bug to align with the runway I'm going to be taking off on or landing on to help me make sure I have the right one.