10 years after Comair Flight 5191: Runway changes, investigator returns, memorial to be held

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Saturday marks ten years since the Comair 5191 crash that took the lives of 49 passengers.  To mark the occasion, the lead investigator into the crash, President and CEO of the National Safety Council Deborah Hersman, will lecture on public safety at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health.

Hersman will speak August 26th at 2 p.m. in the Pavilion A auditorium of UK Chandler Hospital. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Kentucky Injury Prevention Research Center (KIPRC) and Kentucky Safe Communities.  Organizers say Hersman will reflect on the lessons she learned from her time leading the National Safety Council and the National Transportation Safety Board. Hersman will also share small steps everyone can take to make themselves and their loved ones safer.

49 passengers and crew and were killed after the pilot of the plane tried to take off from the wrong runway at Blue Grass Airport on August 27, 2006.  The runway was too short for takeoff, and the plane crashed, killing 49 of the 50 people on board. Officials at the Blue Grass Airport say since the crash, the runway layouts have changed.  The old style was an ‘X’ or what’s considered a military configuration which was standard back then.  Runways now each have their own taxiway, which they decreases options for pilots to go down the wrong runway.

A memorial service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday at the Flight 5191 Monument in the UK Arboretum.  The event is open to the public.