Comair Crash today (fatal)

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gredenko said:
I don't think the FO will remember a thing about the whole deal.
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Yeah, that's hard to say. Some people, in instances of great stress and severe physical trauma, don't remember anything about the event, and others can recall every single specific detail. Brains are weird that way.

I hope he survives, and maybe he'll be able to tell his story. I haven't heard much about his condition other than he was in critical condition and underwent some surgery earlier today.

I feel so bad for him. I couldn't imagine being in his position, the only survivor. :(
 
As if it can't get much worse, the news is now reporting that the people died from the fire, not from the crash--so say the police officers that were on the scene supposedly interviewed by the media. I just watched the 10 O'clock news and this is what they're reporting. They also said the NTSB has confirmed that the plane did indeed take off from the wrong runway and that ATC had cleared the plane for takeoff on the correct runway. No on-camera interviews were shown to backup any of these statements though which, to me, seems so irresponsible of the news. In my opinion, they're clearly sensationalizing this awful tragedy. Their attempts to appear compassionate are so phony to me.

I feel terrible for the victims but in all honesty, I feel just a slight bit worse for the lone survivor. If he makes it, God willing, he's in for a terrible burden of having to wonder why he was the only one to survive.
 
However, let me add that we can speculate but we should be careful. My father seemed so sure that the plane ran off the end of the runway because it took off from the wrong runway and that it never left the ground. I could not explain to him that though this may well be the case, the media tends to jump the gun. When the NTSB came on this afternoon, I did not catch much of the confrence but it felt good to have a prudent, objective outlook on it. These reporters and writers are not the NTSB and many have no experience in aviation. People ask me stupid questions because they think since I fly I know it all. They ask "how could on get onto the wrong runway? I just do not see how someone could do that! Seems the would notice it since it was unlit unlike the major runway." I should ask them, "How can someone go the wrong way on a one way street? I just do not see how they could do that. I mean there is a sign right there!"
 
kellwolf said:
Not part of the checklist at my airline, but it's something I do automatically. We had a crew takeoff on the wrong runway a year or so ago, so it gets beat into our heads during training now.



I think it was recently re-surfaced and re-painted, which could have been another contributing factor.
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You mean you don't have jepp plates displayed on your MFD that shows where you're at on the airport or the approach? :D

I love having electronic charts. Situational awareness is up 10 fold in my opinion. Wealways have the airport diagram displayed regardless if we're at a familiar airport.
 
B767Driver said:
That's pretty low time. Before the RJs and commuters it was 10 to 15 years to upgrade in an airline jet.
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Which only supports my assertion that the left seat of an RJ is where you go after having been a 74/75/76/77 FO, not where you go before becoming a 73 FO.
 
Theotokos said:
"How can someone go the wrong way on a one way street? I just do not see how they could do that. I mean there is a sign right there!"
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I did that just a few days ago in downtown Denver, made it about 50 feet before I was driving in reverse :)

There was construction on the corner I turned in on, no other cars in the area, etc...

Easy to do when you miss one thing, in my case, a sign.
 
Just found out the captain graduated High School about 6 miles from me in 1988. He leaves behind 2 daughters. :(
 
Well, how bout some speculation that some guys will know jack about:

full load, short trip. How much fuel do you rj dudes think they had on board?
 
aloft said:
Which only supports my assertion that the left seat of an RJ is where you go after having been a 74/75/76/77 FO, not where you go before becoming a 73 FO.
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I dunno, I've flown with some guys who have been FOs on the 737 and the bus and that in NO way makes them a nearly competant captain. Most of them are fine but there are some people that it doesn't matter what their experience is they just don't have the mentality. Likewise there are some relativly new captains here who are some the best captains I've seen (and then again some new captains don't have a clue).

frog_flyer said:
full load, short trip. How much fuel do you rj dudes think they had on board?
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Random guess 8 or 9 thousand pounds.
 
BobDDuck said:
I dunno, I've flown with some guys who have been FOs on the 737 and the bus and that in NO way makes them a nearly competant captain.
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My point exactly. Read what I wrote again. The left seat of an RJ should NOT be something you do on your way to the right seat of a 737.
 
B767Driver said:
I don't really care to get into much of a discussion on this...I'd have too much to comment on that would be inappropriate and possibly irrelevant to this situation, especially at this stage. I will say that in the end this will be a human factors nightmare that will be discussed with all the classics.

In the meantime, fly professionally...by the book, with a minimum of a modicum of discipline and decorum. Routines make airline flying the safest type of flying in the world...they also provide huge traps for the complacent to land. Attack complacency ferociously...like your life depends on it. It does. To the FO's: Do not let a subpar flying partner drag you into his MO...if you find this to be the case...mentally lift your awareness and test your theory of the situation at hand. It'll save the day.
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I agree with what you're saying here B767Driver. First I'd like to say I am by NO means an expert in aviation. As a CFI, especially in my last few weeks, I saw how easy it was to become complacent. It doesn't help when I knew that I already had a gauranteed job coming up once I built another 100 hours. It's kind of like the Army says, I think its the Army, prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I tried to use that to come out of my complacency and I feel that falls in line with B767 saying your life does depend on attacking complacency. I'm not saying that I feel this Comair crew was complacent, rather I just wanted to add to what B767Driver wrote that I feel is a very overlooked topic in aviation. My prayers are with the families of the crew and passengers. God Speed.
 
I've been trying to figue out what domicile the crew is from. I know a lot of the MCO crews, by face not names, so it's hard to tell. I'm just glad all my peeps are safe and my condolences go out to those who perished and best wishes to the FO. For once formerly being in the Comair family, it still hits hard. I didn't find out till we got back home to Tempe from PWM. We'd been flying all day.
 
From the Press Release:

* Captain Jeffrey Clay, 35, has been an employee of Comair since November 1999 and is based at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport

* First Officer James Polehinke, 44, has been an employee of Comair since March 2002 and is based at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York;

*Flight Attendant Kelly Heyer, 27, has been a Comair employee since July 2004 and is based at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
 
The news manufacturers (Fox, CNN, etc) are reporting the NTSB has said that the preliminary cause of the crash was the short runway.

On the CRJ, the CA has the tiller right? I just hope people don't try to come down hard on the guy whos in the ICU right now.
 
Hi all,

How is it *known* in the aviation community that it was N431CA that was involved in the accident? Are there lots of different kinds of CRJs? On my news show we are titling a still photograph of the plane (from the Associated Press) "Comair CRJ" but if that is the same as writing "Northwest Airlines Boeing" then it's a little weird. Any input you might have would be appreciated!

Thank you,
Lauren in Tokyo
 
avanti said:
Hi all,

How is it *known* in the aviation community that it was N431CA that was involved in the accident? Are there lots of different kinds of CRJs? On my news show we are titling a still photograph of the plane (from the Associated Press) "Comair CRJ" but if that is the same as writing "Northwest Airlines Boeing" then it's a little weird. Any input you might have would be appreciated!

Thank you,
Lauren in Tokyo
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From Comair:

-- Comair has confirmed the following information about the CRJ100
involved in this accident.
- Aircraft Type: 50-seat Bombardier CRJ100 regional jet
(Model: CL600-2B19)
- Tail number 7472
- Registration number N431CA
- Manufactured in: January 2001
- Delivered to Comair: January 30, 2001
- Airframe Cycles (total number of landings): 12,048
- Airframe Hours (flight time): 14,536.2
- Last overnight maintenance check for aircraft: Lexington
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