Kentucky crash blamed on pilots

WASHINGTON – Pilots’ failure to notice clues that they were heading to the wrong runway was the primary cause of last summer’s deadly Kentucky plane crash that killed 49 people, safety investigators concluded Thursday.

The National Transportation Safety Board deliberated all day on possible causes of the Aug. 27, 2006, crash of Comair Flight 5191, which tried to depart in the pre-dawn darkness from an unlit general aviation strip too short for a proper takeoff.

Board members originally had considered listing errors by the air traffic controller as contributing causes but ultimately pinned most of the blame on the pilots, along with the Federal Aviation Administration for failing to enforce earlier recommendations on runway checks.

NTSB board member Deborah Hersman suggested during the meeting that there were numerous causes – nearly all of them human.

“That’s the frustration of this accident – no single cause, no single solution and no ‘aha’ moment,” Hersman said. “Rather than pointing to a mechanical or design flaw in the aircraft that could be fixed or a maintenance problem that could be corrected, this accident has led us into the briar patch of human behavior.”

Hersman was one of two board members who voted to list the controller’s action as a contributing cause, but she was overruled.

The NTSB also proposed several changes to aviation procedure as a result of the accident, including calls for clearer signs at regional airports and installation of an automated moving map system in which pilots can check in real time whether they’re on the correct runway.

In a statement, Comair President Don Bornhorst said he would work with the NTSB and the FAA to address the proposed changes.

The board’s findings were perhaps more notable for the things they decided weren’t factors than the ones they determined were.

Among the non-factors, according to the board, were the flight crew’s lack of updated maps and notices alerting them to construction that had changed the taxiway route a week earlier. Although the board found the controller was fatigued, that also likely didn’t play a role, the board said.