=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2006/08/28/national/a= 013212D90.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, August 28, 2006 (AP) Cause of Deadly Comair Crash Probed By JEFFREY McMURRAY, Associated Press Writer (08-28) 08:30 PDT Lexington, Ky. (AP) -- As the pilots prepared Comair Flight 5191 for takeoff in the predawn darkness, they talked with air traffic controllers about Runway 22, Blue Grass Airport's main strip for commercial flights, a federal official said Monday after listening to tapes recovered from the crashed plane's cockpit and the control tower. Somehow, the commuter jet and its 50 occupants ended up on Runway 26 instead, a cracked surface meant for small planes that was much too short for the twin-engine jet. What followed early Sunday morning was the worst U.S. plane disaster sin= ce 2001. The pilots tried to lift off, but the plane clipped trees, then quickly crashed in a field and burst into flames, killing everyone aboard but a critically injured co-pilot who was pulled from the cracked cockpit. "There was planning discussion, both by the air traffic controllers and the crew, conversations with each other about using Runway 22 for departure," National Transportation Safety Board member Deborah Hersman said Monday on CNN. "We do know from the information that we have obtained on scene, gathered evidence, documentation and from the flight data recorder, that the runway that the crew used was Runway 26." The two runways at the Lexington airport cross in an X pattern. To get from the terminal to the head of Runway 22, the airport's 7,000-foot-long main strip, the plane would have had to pass the entry point to the 3,500-foot-long Runway 26. Aviation experts say the CRJ-100 would have needed 5,000 feet to fully g= et off the ground. Investigators going over the voice and data recorders were still trying = to figure out Monday what went wrong. The plane's two pilots were familiar with the twin-engine CRJ-100, and that plane in particular, the plane's maintenance was up to date, and it wasn't an old aircraft, Comair President Don Bornhorst said. Comair, based in Erlanger, Ky., is a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. "We are absolutely, totally committed to doing everything humanly possib= le to determine the cause of this accident," Bornhorst said Sunday. Hersman said the NTSB would be looking at the weight of the aircraft, the runway available and where the plane should have been. A light rain was also falling Sunday, it was still dark just after 6 a.m., and the main runway had been repaved the previous week. "We certainly are going to be looking at how to prevent something like this from occurring in the future," she told NBC's "Today" show Monday. At Blue Grass Airport, flights were back to normal Monday. The daily 6 a.m. Lexington-to-Atlanta flight took off safely, though with a different flight number, Delta 6107. "Obviously there is some anxiety when something like this happens, but it is not something that would stop me from going," said Mark Carroll, 47, a computer consultant from Lexington who was boarding the flight to Atlanta. "Things happen when you get older, it happens to everyone. You keep doing what you're doing." The wreckage of Flight 5191, meanwhile, remained largely intact but severely burned in a field about a mile away. The burned bodies of the 49 victims were removed from the plane on Sunday and taken to the state Medical Examiner's Office in Frankfort for autopsies to determine the cause of death. Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said Sunday that they likely died in the fire. When rescuers reached the plane, it was in flames. "They were taking off, so I'm sure they had a lot of fuel on board," Ginn said. "Most of the injuries are going to be due to fire-related deaths." The victims included a newlywed couple starting their honeymoon, a director of Habitat for Humanity International, an owner of a thoroughbred horse farm, a University of Kentucky official and a Florida man who had caught an early flight home to be with his children. Most of the passengers had planned to connect to other flights in Atlant= a, said the Rev. Harold Boyce, a volunteer chaplain at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Amid the devastation and lost lives, there was also a story of heroism: Police Officer Bryan Jared reached into the broken cockpit and pulled out James M. Polehinke, the plane's first officer, burning his own arms to save the man. Polehinke was listed in critical condition at University of Kentucky Hospital. The crash marks the end of what has been called the "safest period in aviation history" in the United States. There has not been a major crash since Nov. 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 plunged into a residential neighborhood in New York City, killing 265 people, including five on the ground. The Comair plane that crashed in Lexington had undergone routine maintenance as recently as Saturday and had 14,500 flight hours, "consistent with aircraft of that age," Bornhorst said. Its pilots were experienced: Capt. Jeffrey Clay was hired by Comair in 1999, and Polehinke has been with Comair since 2002. The newlyweds, Jon Hooker, a former minor-league baseball player, and Scarlett Parsley, died hours after their wedding. They had celebrated with a fairy-tale ceremony on Saturday, complete with a horse-drawn carriage and 300 friends. They had planned to spend their honeymoon in California. "It's so tragic because he was so happy last night," said Keith Madison, who coached Hooker's baseball team at the University of Kentucky and attended the wedding. "It's just an incredible turn of events. It's really painful." ___ Associated Press writers Leslie Miller in Washington, Harry Weber in Atlanta, and Dan Sewell in Cincinnati contributed to this report. ---------= ------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2006 AP