Comair Sues Feds, Kentucky Airport
Comair sued the federal government and the Lexington airport Friday over the deadly crash of a commuter plane that mistakenly took off from a too-short runway. Forty-nine people were killed in the accident Aug. 27.
In a statement, the airline said it intends to reach fair settlements with the victims' families but is suing to ensure other parties that bear responsibility pay their share.
Comair, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc., operates 850 flights to 108 cities daily. Both airlines filed for bankruptcy protection last year.
Airport officials and their attorney had no immediate comment, saying they had not seen the lawsuit. A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington did not immediately return calls.
Comair also filed an administrative claim with the government, saying it has more than $17.3 million in losses related to the crash.
A week before the crash, an airport repaving project changed the taxi route leading to the 7,000-foot main runway that Comair Flight 5191 should have used.
The plane mistakenly turned onto a 3,500-foot runway in the dark, struggled to get airborne and crashed in a field.
In the lawsuit, Comair claims the Federal Aviation Administration failed in its duty to inspect and approve construction along the taxi route leading to the main runway.
The company also claims the FAA failed to properly staff the control tower with two air traffic controllers. Instead, only one was on duty that morning, and he had turned away from the runway before Comair Flight 5191 took off.
Comair claimed that signs, lighting and markers that would have guided the two pilots to the correct runway were missing because of the construction.
At least 13 wrongful-death lawsuits have been filed over the crash.
Among the dead were a newlywed couple starting their honeymoon and a man who took an early flight to get home to his children. Jon Hooker had just married Scarlett Parlsey the night before the crash in a ceremony with 300 friends and relatives at Lexington's Headley-Whitley Museum.
Pilot Jeffrey Clay was killed in the crash and fire, but rescue workers did pull co-pilot Jim Polehinke from the wreckage, but he had critical injuries and burns. He was released from a hospital last week to begin several weeks of rehabilitation.
The crash marked 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 Queens, N.Y., killing 265 people, including five on the ground.