USA Today Op-Ed:
Five crash-free years end with stunning blunder
August 28, 2006
Airline crashes are often complex mysteries that take months or even years for safety investigators to unravel.
That's not the case with Comair Flight 5191, which crashed Sunday after pilots tried to take off from the wrong runway in Lexington, Ky. Their jetliner sped off the too-short runway, reserved for small planes. All but one of the 50 people on board were killed in the USA's first large commercial jet crash in nearly five years.
The vexing question isn't what caused the crash but, with all the recent technological advances in airline safety and the backup systems designed to prevent mistakes, how could this have happened.
Wrong-runway errors are fairly common, though the result is not usually so tragic. The airline industry and the nation's air safety watchdogs have known about the problem for years. Since the 1980s, there have been hundreds of reported cases of pilots trying to take off or land on the wrong runway, USA TODAY's Alan Levin reported Monday. In 1994, two people in a small plane were killed after the pilots tried to take off from the wrong runway and struck a jet at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
Pilots and safety experts say several improvements, some of them simple and inexpensive, could help prevent wrong-runway mistakes. Among them:
• Bolder signs and markings. In 1997, the Las Vegas airport experienced a disturbing trend: Several pilots landed, or tried to land, on a taxiway. The airport quickly went beyond the standard markings and painted "TAXI ONLY" on the strip in letters 60 feet tall. Capt. Terry McVenes, of the Air Line Pilots Association, said his union has been urging better signs and lights for years. "For $8 a gallon for paint, you can solve a lot of problems," he told USA TODAY after Sunday's crash.
• New technology. Last year, 1.2 million vehicles rolled off assembly lines with GPS equipment on board that can tell drivers when they have made a wrong turn. Shouldn't it be possible to provide similar equipment with the accuracy needed to tell the pilots of commercial jetliners the same thing?
A moving map display that gives pilots a picture of where they are on the airport grounds is being tested by some airlines. Another device would alert pilots if they are approaching the wrong runway. "You could buy it for $20,000," says Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. But federal authorities do not require it.
• Operational changes. At least one major airline reminds pilots to do what every student pilot should do: Just before takeoff, check to make sure that the compass heading matches the runway on which they are supposed to depart.
Whether any of these changes would have prevented Sunday's tragedy in Lexington isn't yet known. But there's little doubt that they could help ensure similar accidents don't happen again.
