Comair Flight 191 - Aftermath

Aftermath

During the course of its investigation, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) discovered that tower staffing levels at Blue Grass Airport violated an internal policy as reflected in a November 16, 2005, memorandum requiring two controllers during the overnight shift: one in the tower working clearance, ground, and tower frequencies, and another, either in the tower or remotely at Indianapolis Center, working TRACON (radar). At the time of the accident, the single controller in the tower was performing both tower and radar duties. On August 30, 2006, the FAA announced that Lexington, as well as other airports with similar traffic levels, would be staffed with two controllers in the tower around the clock effective immediately.

On September 12, 2006, Comair announced that all of its pilots had been using an airport map with outdated information at the time of the crash. A new diagram was received by the airline on Friday, September 8, two weeks after the crash. At the same time, the airline issued a warning to pilots to exercise "extreme caution" when taxiing to the appropriate runway. Despite the existence of the outdated chart, an airport spokesman stated that the updated taxi route was available to pilots via a Notice To Airmen (NOTAM) released when the construction began.

On September 14, 2006, Fayette Circuit Judge Pamela Goodwine issued a restraining order to prevent Blue Grass Airport from continuing any construction to preserve evidence in the crash pending the inspection by safety experts and attorneys for the families of the victims.

On December 12, 2006, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended that the FAA should take steps to ensure that pilots cross-check their position before crossing the hold-short line and initiating takeoff. The NTSB also recommended that pilots be given specific guidance on runway lighting requirements for take-off at night.

The NTSB released several factual reports on January 17, 2007, including transcripts and recordings of the CVR and an engineering report.

In April 2007, the NTSB made four further recommendations, three measures to avoid fatigue affecting the performance of air traffic controllers, and one to prevent controllers from carrying out non-essential administrative tasks while aircraft are taxiing under their control. Although these recommendations were published during the course of the NTSB's investigation into the accident to Comair Flight 191, they were in part prompted by four earlier accidents, and the Board was unable to determine whether fatigue contributed to the Comair accident.

In July 2007, a flying instructor for Comair testified that he would have failed both pilots for violating Sterile Cockpit Rules. Later the same month, the NTSB released its final report into the accident, citing this "non-pertinent conversation" as a contributing factor in the accident.

On July 8, 2008, United States District Judge Karl Forester ruled Delta will not be held liable for the crash, because while Comair is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Atlanta-based airline, Comair maintains its own management and policies, and employs its own pilots.

On December 17, 2009, Judge Forester granted a passenger family's motion for "partial summary judgment" determining, as a matter of law, that Comair's flight crew was negligent, and that this negligence was a substantial factor causing the crash of Flight 5191.

Families of 45 of the 47 passengers sued Comair for negligence. (Families of the other two victims settled with the airline before filing litigation.) Three sample cases were due to be heard on August 4, 2008; but the trial was indefinitely postponed after Comair reached a settlement with the majority of the families. Cases brought by Comair against the airport authority and the FAA, arguing each should share in the compensation payments, are now resolved. The case against the airport authority was dismissed on sovereign immunity grounds, and this ruling was upheld by the Kentucky Supreme Court on October 1, 2009. In Comair's case against the United States a settlement was reached with the United States agreeing to pay 22% of the liability for the crash, while Comair agreed to pay the remaining 78%.

All but one of the passengers' families settled their cases. After a four day jury trial in Lexington, Kentucky, that ended on December 7, 2009, the estate and daughters of 39 year old Bryan Woodward were awarded compensatory damages in the amount of $7.1 million. While Comair challenged this verdict as excessive, on April 2, 2010, Judge Forester overruled Comair's objections and upheld the verdict.

The Woodward case, formally known as Hebert v. Comair, was set for a punitive damages jury trial July 19, 2010. In that trial a different jury was to decide whether Comair was guilty of gross negligence that was a substantial factor causing the crash and, if so, the amount of any punitive damages the jury deemed appropriate. The decision to allow a jury trial was reversed in a later hearing, with the judge ruling that the company couldn't be punished for the "reprehensible conduct" of its pilot.