Outdated Runway Charts Used at Time of Kentucky Plane Crash

By Thomas Hall

Published on September 12, 2006

The company memo, obtained by The Associated Press, said that the diagrams used at the time of the accident did not reflect changes that had recently been made to the airport’s taxiway.

Comair received a new chart last Friday, two weeks after Flight 5191 crashed during an attempted departure from a runway not equipped for large-jet takeoffs. The old chart had not been updated since early this year.

Comair is ordering all its flight crews to exercise extreme caution during ground operations at the airport and to use high threat taxi procedures. The order also came with a warning that some runway charts still don’t accurately reflect current signs and markings at Blue Grass Airport.

The airport began a repaving project a week before the plane crash. The project changed the taxi route leading to the main runway that Flight 5191 should have taken off from. The plane departed from the airport’s 3,500-foot runway instead, which is too short to accommodate larger jets.

It is not clear why Comair did not have a current diagram of Blue Grass Airport. The National Aeronautical Charting Office, a division of the Federal Aviation Administration, produces the diagrams through vendors employed by the airline.

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