Investigators Comb Site of Plane Crash

Fox News ^ | 27 Aug 06 | AP

[PushinTin]

First, let me start with I have never been to Lexington Tower. I do NOT know where it is located on the field as far as visual perspective. Number 2. There is NOT 4 degrees difference in the runways. There is approximately 40. 220 vs 240. At night it is very hard to tell position at certain distances and angles. All I am saying until I get a chance to look at it further.

[PushinTin]

Whoops 220 vs 260...

[Tall_Texan]

FWIW, I think there are several who are culpable. I frankly think too many folks were not fully awake to catch the obvious error - both in the cockpit and in the tower.

There are so many checks and double-checks that you wonder how it is even possible.

I knew I had a good reason for avoiding those 6 a.m. flights they always try to push your toward on these discount sites. Truth is, I just don't want to get up that early. Heck, with all the passenger screening now, you've got to wake up the night before just to catch a 6 a.m. flight.

[pterional]

The pilot and copilot probably had a period of disbelief and then panic when they saw how quickly that row of red lights was coming up and they had not made rotation speed. It would be a tough call to either abort and run off the end of the runway or pull up,and stay in ground effect to avoid stalling till you gain some speed. Looks like they didn't get over to the other side of the power curve and they stalled.

[DustyMoment]

FWIW, I think there are several who are culpable.

I agree. I just hate to see people automatically go for the flight crew. While they have the responsibility and obligation to check and double-check each other, commercial flying is a team effort. It takes the ATCs and the flight crews working together to make flying safe and successful. When that teamwork breaks down, as it did in this crash, people get hurt or die.

[samtheman]

It wasn't immediately clear how the plane ended up on the shorter runway in the predawn darkness. There was a light rain Sunday, and the strip veers off at a V from the main runway, which had just been repaved last week.

"We will be looking into performance data, we will be looking at the weight of the aircraft, we will be looking at speeds, we will pull all that information off," Hersman said.

They ought to be looking into the possibility that the "V from the main runway" isn't marked clearly enough.