By Duncan Mansfield, Associated Press  |  September 1, 2006

LEXINGTON , Ky. -- A cockpit warning system used by only a few commercial airlines might have prevented the deadly Comair jet crash last weekend if the plane had been equipped with the $18,000 piece of technology, a former top federal safety official says.

``To have 49 people burned up in a crash that is totally preventable is one of the worst things I have ever seen, and I've seen almost everything in aviation," Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said in a telephone interview from his home in Chattanooga, Tenn.

In Sunday's accident, a commuter jet at Lexington 's airport struggled to get airborne and crashed after it made a wrong turn and took off from a runway that was too short. The sole survivor, the plane's first officer, was critically injured. His condition was upgraded to serious yesterday.

A Runway Awareness and Advisory System made by Honeywell Aerospace uses a mechanical voice to identify the runway by number before takeoff and warns pilots if the runway is too short for their plane.

The system, which can pinpoint a plane's location using global positioning systems, also alerts pilots if they are trying to take off from a taxiway instead of a runway.

The software program -- an enhancement to Honeywell's widely used ground proximity warning system that alerts pilots to mountain peaks ahead -- costs about $18,000 per plane

The FAA certified Honeywell's system in 2003 but did not require its use.

Only Alaska Airlines, Air France, FedEx , Lufthansa, and Malaysia Airlines have ordered the system for their planes, Honeywell spokesman Bill Reavis said.