Pilot Error and Crew Resource Management to Be Likely Focus of Investigation in Lexington, KY Comair Crash; Poor Pilot Decision Making was Implicated in A 1997 Comair Crash, Expert Pilots/Attorneys Say

The investigation of the crash shortly after takeoff of a Comair airplane in Lexington, KY, on Sunday morning will likely focus on pilot error and may find, as a contributing factor, a lack of communication between the flight crew.

Survivability of the aircraft model is another factor likely to be considered.

"Aviation is a very unforgiving environment. A single error in judgment, such as selecting the wrong runway, can have disastrous consequences. It is imperative that flight crews are trained and practiced in crew resource management which is a way for the flight crew to cross-check each other and challenge each other's decisions, if necessary," said Daniel O. Rose an aviation lawyer, and former commercial and military pilot, at Kreindler & Kreindler LLP in New York, the nation's leading aviation law firm. "Crew resource management is at the heart of air safety and is the last check in the flight deck to make sure the flight is being conducted safely."

While the investigation is ongoing, early reports suggest the Canadair Regional Jet, operated as Comair Flight 5191, may have used the shorter of two runways at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport when it took off at 6:10 am. If the pilot taxied the plane to the wrong runway, the mistake should have been identified and corrected by the second (non-flying) crewmember as part of proper crew resource management.

Air traffic controllers may also bear some responsibility for the chain of events that lead to the crash if they failed to identify the flight crews' mistake in taxing to the wrong runway.

Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, was involved in a prior case against Comair arising out of the crash of a Comair Embraer 120 aircraft in 1997, killing 29 people. While aircraft icing was the ultimate cause of that crash, the decisions of the flight crew were also cited by investigators.

In examining Sunday's crash in Kentucky, the NTSB will also focus on survivability issues, such as whether the passengers aboard the regional jet survived the crash but died in the subsequent fire. In the United States over the past two decades there have been at least four catastrophic post-crash fires that killed the occupants of the airplane even though they lived through the initial disaster.

"Aircraft manufacturers must design planes so that passengers who survive a crash can quickly and safely evacuate the aircraft. The design of this particular airplane will surely be examined in this light," said Robert J. Spragg, a partner at Kreindler & Kreindler and a former military pilot who was extensively involved in the 1997 case against Comair.

The law firm is available to comment on:

* The history of commuter aircraft accidents

* The development of crew resource management over the past decade

* Victims' and victims' family rights in air crashes

* All other legal issues and guidelines related to air crashes

* Airplane technical and operational matters

* Crash investigation and accident reconstruction

Expert pilots/attorneys at Kreindler & Kreindler include:

Robert J. Spragg: Kreindler law partner specializing in aviation litigation who has been involved in numerous airline, commuter, military and general aviation crash cases, including the crash of Comair flight 3272 near Monroe, Michigan. Mr. Spragg previously served in the United States Marine Corps as a Naval Aviator from 1981 to 1988, where he flew the CH-46 helicopter.

Daniel O. Rose: Kreindler law partner specializing in litigating airline, general aviation and military crash cases, as well as other complex products liability and negligence cases. Mr. Rose served in the United States Navy as a carrier-based attack pilot including service in Operation Desert Shield.

Founded in 1950, Kreindler & Kreindler, is nationally recognized as the first and most prominent aviation law firm in the nation. The firm has been the leading plaintiff legal counsel on hundreds of aviation cases, including major ones such as the September 11 terrorist attacks, Pan Am Lockerbie Flight 103, Korean Airlines Flight 007, American Airlines Flight 587, and many cases of small private and commercial crashes. Its ranks include airplane and helicopter pilots, engineers and other technical experts.