John Mazor wrote:


The tower provides runway separation. You can't do that from a darkened
room on the ground, you have to see the runways and be able to scan the
sky in the immediate vicinity to establish a sequence.


And in order to do that, they have to watch the airplanes on the taxiways
and runways, don't they? Which was my point.

There was only one airplane. The controller had no obligation to
continue to watch this, the only aircraft, once takeoff clearance had
been issued.


What I wwas doing here was responding to the narrow-minded views expressed
here, to the effect that since the pilot has the primary responsibility for
everything that happens, then runway, taxiway, and controller
responsibilities had nothing to do with the accident in KY. I wasn't
drawing a direct, exact connection regarding the conditions at the two
airports.

Narrow-minded views?

For a Part 121 flight crew to takeoff during nighttime on a runway
without operating runway edge lights rises to the level of criminal
negligence. At that point ambiguous or even misleading airport signage
became irrelevant.

Had the signs caused them to end up on a dead-end taxiway, well, ok,
shame on the signs. But, for them to take an unlighted runway, and
diregard their heading bug or FMS runway display, well, gee..."Honest
officer, I wouldn't have driven 90 the wrong way on this one way street
and collided with the school bus, had only the one-way signs had been
more visible."