(AFX) - 0827dv--comair--newser--ff
WASHINGTON -- Accident investigators will be taking a meticulous look at the series of events that led to a regional jet apparently taking off the wrong runway and whether it might have been possible to evacuate passengers before it erupted in flames.
The pilots apparently rolled out on a runway that's too short for the regional jet they were flying -- a CRJ200 -- to take off.
The fuselage was apparently intact but engulfed in a devastating fire when rescuers reached it, authorities said. The first officer was taken from the airplane in critical condition.
The passengers and crew appeared to still be on the plane and the deaths were caused either by the impact or the fire on board, said Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn, referring to the Kentucky crash site.
Peter Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said a survival factors group will look carefully to see exactly how the passengers perished: by blunt force trauma, by smoke inhalation or burn.
'They'll try and figure out from the position of the victims whether an evacuation was possible,' Goelz said. 'From the location of the bodies, they may be able to tell whether an evacuation was attempted.'
A group of investigators will also look at the emergency response, Goelz said. 'How quickly did they get there? Did they have the appropriate firefighting materials? Did they put the right stuff on in a timely manner.'
Investigators will also try to reconstruct the series of mistakes that led the pilots apparently to make the error of taking off on a short, narrow, unlighted runway made of old concrete rather than a long, wide runway that was recently resurfaced, said Paul Czysz, professor emeritus of aerospace engineering at Saint Louis University.
The airplane, a CRJ-200, needs to roll for about 4,500 feet to 5,000 feet before it gains enough speed to become airborne, Czysz said. The shorter runway is 3,500 feet, according to the FAA; the longer runway is 7,003 feet.
'Someone didn't have their brain attached,' Czysz said.
Pilots should have noticed the difference between the two runways, the blue taxi lights and the lit runway markers, he said.
Controllers in the tower should have also noticed what runway the pilots were on when they asked for permission to take off, Czysz said.
John Goglia, former NTSB board member, said there is an explanation for how the crash happened.
'They're taxiing out from the terminal, no one's in front of them, so they're going quickly,' Goglia said. 'One pilot's got his head down,' he said, entering data into the flight data computer.
Goglia said the shorter runway was lit, though the FAA's formal notice to pilots said there were supposed to be no lights on the runway.
'He's looking for runway lights, he sees them, he's given clearance,' Goglia said. 'There's one guy in the tower and he's moved on to other duties.'
Terry McVenes, executive air safety chairman for the Air Line Pilots Association, International, said the effects of recent construction on the runway will be an important factor in the investigation.
The airport's main runway had also been resurfaced just a week before the crash.
'The role of the construction and the lighting -- that's one of the factors that's going to be important,' McVenes said.
Investigators will look into a host of issues, including the pilots' training, whether they were fatigued and how well they knew the aiport, Goelz said.
'They'll listen intently to the recorder to see if the checklists were followed and that the instructions from the tower were understood and followed,' Goelz said.
Ted Lopatkiewicz, NTSB spokesman, said investigators were already looking at the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder in their laboratory.
The flight data recorder will tell investigators in what direction the airplane was headed, which will confirm which runway it attempted to take off from, Goelz said.
Another issue is how familiar the pilots were with the airport and its runway layout, Goelz said. 'How many times did these guys fly this airport?' he said.
The pilots were identified as Capt. Jeffrey Clay, who was hired by Comair in 1999 and first officer James M. Polehinke, who was hired in 2002.
McVenes said Comair's safety practices have not been an issue in the past. 'They've been quite active in the safety area,' he said. 'They always have very good people.'
There was a fatal Comair accident in 1997 in Ida, Mich., when an Embraer 120 regional jet crashed while on approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport in icing conditions, killing 29.
Associated Press writer Harry Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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