Is The Controller To Blame For The Comair Crash?

[sbl_admin]

A federal investigator says the air traffic controller had worked for almost 15 hours and slept for two.
FOX_News

[joepole]

No, the responsibility for the safety of the aircraft begins and ends with the pilot.

[LateNight]

now I haven't been following this story closely at all. But is this the plane that tried taking off on too short of a runway ? From what little I remember hearing, it seems someone was looking at old information as far as the runway layout ?

yes, I agree the repsponsibility of the plane falls on the pilot, but when it comes to what runway do they taxi down and use for take off or landings, does that information not come from the Tower ?

Latenight.

[scarlett]

If I recall the story, they were clear for take-off and the pilot took the incorrect runway. If I am wrong someone correct me here I don't feel like going back and reread the story. I know a lawsuit was filed w/in one week of that happening.

I fear flying now and I just got over fear of flying w/in the past year. Sucks now!!! Pilot error I am honestly leaning towards but as I said I maybe wrong.

None of them get much sleep you have to think, your plane lands around 12AM that is very common and they have to fly out around 6am the next morning. That doesn't seem like a lot of sleep to me. Just like the Las Vegas flights you leave at 11:30PM but think of the time it really is when they go east. If you land EST you land around 8:30AM and do you think the pilots go to bed? They just flew all night even though that may have been a 5 hr. flight.

[geodood]

As a "techie", what I find most disturbing is that a simple $15 RFID tag the size of a pack of chewing gum embedded in the airplane, along with a $500 RFID tag reader embedded in the runway, could have prevented this airplane from taking off on the wrong runway. A simple alarm should have gone off in either the cockpit or tower (or both), just as if a burgular tried to open the wrong window in a home with an alarm installed.

This is not "rocket science" as they say. If Fedex, Walmart, and UPS can route boxes with barcodes and RFID tags, then why can't an airport route airplanes the same way? (as a backup measure of course) I agree that the responsibility lies with the Captain to make sure he is steering the plane correctly. But it never hurts to backup humans with alarm mechanisms. Heck even a set of pressure sensors on the taxiways, or Infrared "eye" across the runway would work. These are ancient technologies. LOL, my garage door will not close if there is an obstruction in the way of the Infrared LED beam.

[joepole]

The pilot was using an airport chart that was 6 or 9 months out of date.

>I fear flying now and I just got over fear of flying w/in the past year.

Why do you fear flying now? The fact that accidents like this are rare enough to be big news should clue you in to the fact that air travel is incredibly safe. You're a lot more likely to get killed sitting at your computer right now than you are likely to get killed on a commercial aircraft.

[Isaac-Saxxon]

Originally Posted by sbl_admin

A federal investigator says the air traffic controller had worked for almost 15 hours and slept for two.
FOX_News

The controller should know that the peoples lives are in his hands and
if he had worked to long he should have made a report on this so it
would have been on record and he would not be taking so much heat.
Either way it is very sad for all parties.