In the minutes before the crash of a commuter jet that took off from the wrong runway, the pilots discussed their families, their dogs and job opportunities, violating at times a rule against extraneous cockpit conversation, the airline said Wednesday. The National Transportation Safety Board released a transcript Wednesday of the cockpit recording aboard Comair Flight 5191. The transcript also showed that one of the pilots noted something was amiss when he glanced down the Lexington, Ky., airstrip and said it looked "weird" because it had no lights. The transcript was the first public disclosure of the pilots' conversations during the ill-fated flight, which struggled to get airborne after trying to take off from a runway that was too short for passenger jets. The plane went down in flames, killing 49 people in the deadliest American aviation disaster in five years.
The transcript revealed that the flight crew "did not follow Comair's general cockpit procedures," Comair spokeswoman Kate Marx said. "It is unclear what role, if any, this played in the accident, so it would be premature to determine that." In 1981, the Federal Aviation Administration adopted a so-called "sterile cockpit rule" that prohibits, among other things, extraneous conversation during taxi, takeoff and landing. As the pilots went through preflight procedures, Capt. Jeffrey Clay talked about his young children having colds, and co-pilot James Polehinke discussed his four dogs. The two men also talked about pay and working conditions, even as the controller occasionally interrupted to provide instructions. Marx said Comair does not believe those statements violated the rule because they were made before the aircraft began to taxi. However, a later conversation about a fellow pilot was a violation, she said.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the sterile cockpit policy prohibits "engaging in non-essential conversations within the cockpit." Peter Goelz, former managing director at the NTSB, said a little extraneous conversation among pilots is not unusual, but the extent of the chatter between the Comair crew was rare. "I think that when the human-factors experts at the NTSB analyze the transcripts, they will identify this extraneous conversation as a contributing factor," Goelz said. Polehinke was the only survivor of the Aug. 27 crash, losing a leg and suffering brain damage. He has told relatives he remembers nothing about that morning. According to federal investigators, Clay taxied the plane onto the wrong runway at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport before Polehinke took over the controls for takeoff.
An engineering report also released Wednesday concluded the pilots never tried to abort the takeoff or realized they were on the wrong runway. Sixteen of the passengers suffered smoke inhalation, indicating they survived the initial impact, the NTSB said. Other passengers sustained internal and brain injuries, broken bones, severed limbs and burns. Numerous lawsuits have been filed accusing Comair of negligence. However, the airline has sued the airport and the Federal Aviation Administration, contending they are partially responsible. A week before the crash, the taxiways at Blue Grass were altered as part of a construction project, but the maps and charts used in the cockpits of Comair and other airlines were not updated. The FAA did notify airlines of the changes through a separate announcement.
