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Controller turned back on plane

An air traffic controller was juggling too many duties and missed a plane going down the wrong runway.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 30, 2006

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The lone air traffic controller on duty the morning Comair Flight 5191 crashed cleared the jet for takeoff, then turned his back to do some "administrative duties" as the aircraft veered down the wrong runway, a federal investigator said Tuesday.

Separately, the Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged violating its own policies when it assigned only one controller to the Lexington tower.

The commuter jet struggled to get airborne and crashed in a field before daybreak Sunday, killing 49 of the 50 people aboard, after taking off from a 3,500-foot runway instead of an adjoining one that was twice as long. The sole survivor, first officer James Polehinke, was in critical condition Tuesday.

The air traffic controller had an unobstructed view of the runways and had cleared the aircraft for takeoff from the longer runway, said National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman.

Then, "he turned his back to perform administrative duties," Hersman said. "At that point, he was doing a traffic count."

The controller, whose name was not released, had been working at the Lexington airport for 17 years and was fully qualified, Hersman said.

Polehinke was flying the plane when it crashed, but it was the flight's captain, Jeffrey Clay, who taxied the aircraft onto the wrong runway, Hersman said. Clay then turned over the controls to Polehinke for takeoff.

Polehinke was pulled from the burning plane after the crash but has not been able to tell investigators why the pilots tried to take off from the wrong runway.

The crew checked in at 5:15 a.m. but boarded the wrong plane at first, Hersman said. They started preparations before a ramp worker alerted them to the error. Passengers still boarded on time, and a ramp worker found no problems during an inspection, she said.

Both crew members were familiar with the Lexington airport, according to Hersman. She said Clay had been there six times in the past two years, and Polehinke had been there 10 times in the past two years, but neither had been to the airport since a taxiway repaving project a week earlier altered the taxiway route.

Federal officials are looking into whether runway lights or the repaving project confused the crew.

Earlier Tuesday, the FAA admitted it violated a policy, outlined in a November 2005 directive, requiring that control tower observations and radar approach operations be handled by separate controllers.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the controller at the Lexington airport had to do his own job - keeping track of airplanes on the ground and in the air up to a few miles away - as well as radar duties.

Polehinke's mother, Honey Jackson, said her son is not to blame, and she asked people to wait for all the facts.

"He could die at any moment," said Jackson, a lounge singer who lives in Miami.

It was miraculous that Polehinke was still alive, said Dr. Andrew Bernard, a surgeon at the University of Kentucky Hospital. He was not burned, but he had facial fractures; two spinal fractures; a complex pelvis fracture; a broken leg, foot and hand; three broken ribs; a broken breastbone; and a punctured lung.

[Last modified August 30, 2006, 01:12:00]