The Lexington ATC was NOT doing traffic count after he cleared Comair 5191 for takeoff.

To Whom It May Concern:

The FAA has told us that the lone controller at Lexington tower turned
his back on Comair 191 and was busy with "administrative duties,
traffic count" after he cleared Comair191 for takeoff while it was on
the wrong runway. Initially, he admitted seeing Comair on the wrong
runway and later changed his testimony..

The FAA released the tapes the other day and I downloaded it from
their site at....

http://www.faa.gov/data_statistics/a.../comair_tapes/

If you download the ATC Communications audio (MP3) tape there and play
it, you can hear Diane English, an FAA employee, say she made the
tape from 0944 Coordinated Universal Time - 1026 Coordinated Universal
Time on August 27, 2006. The accident occurred at 1006 Coordinated
Universal Time.

If you want to understand what happened, download the tape and play
it while you read the following information....

At 06:52 into the tape, Comair 191 calls clearance delivery for his
clearance to Atlanta.

Christopher Damron, operating initials CD, the lone controller, was
working four positions. (1) Flight data/clearance delivery(FD/CD)
where he had to contact center and transmit clearances to aircraft on
one frequency, (2) Ground Control (GC) where he had to issue taxi
clearance and watch taxiing aircraft on ramp and taxiways on another
frequency, Local Control (LC) where he had to watch aircraft on the
runway and in the traffic pattern in the control zone out to five mile
radius on a third frequency, and Radar Departure Control (DC) where
he had to give heading to fly for arrivals and departures below 10,000
ft. on a fourth frequency. This is not too much to handle if things
fall in a staggered sequence, but when you get busy, someone has to
wait. You can't talk on four frequencies at once or talk to ten
aircraft at once. In the business, it's called going "Down the
tubes". During the day, all these positions are manned and in addition
the local control position can be split between two controllers.
There is a supervisor and cab coordinator (CC) also who monitor all
positions to insure safe operations. I have a photo I took a LGB where
you can see ten controllers in the tower cab.

As you listen to the tape, you will see that CD doesn't have a lot of
time to catch his breath in the minutes before Comair is cleared for
takeoff. After that, he has nothing to do. He let his guard down.
These times show it to some degrees but his transmissions are
sometimes lengthy and there is little time between each transmission.

At 06:58, CD issues Comair his clearance to ATL and..
At. 07:12 Comair reads back the clearance and admits he missed his
arrival route into ATL. CD had to spell it out for him.

At 13:30 CD makes a blanket broadcast that the ATIS has changed to
Bravo and the new altimeter setting is 30.00.

At 13:54, the controller, operating initials Charley Delta, calls
ARTCC. He doesn't key his microphone while dialing (old rotary pulse
phone) but has to key in to talk to center at 13:58. That is when you
hear CD breathing and the music in the background from the radio. He
unkeys his mike at 14:05 and the music can no longer be heard. We
hear it again at 14:09 when he keys in. ARTCC hasn't come up on the
line so the music can only be in the tower cab. At 14:08, ARTCC comes
on the line and CD requests a release on Skywest 6819. Center releases
him and CD gives his initials and hangs up at 14:12. The music stops
at that time.

At 16:04 into the tape, Comair 191 advises he is about to push back.
At 16:09, ATC responds Roger, advise ready for taxi.
At 16:11, Comair says Roger.

At 16:32 into the tape, Eagleflight 882 calls for taxi and at 16:43
he taxis him to RWY22.
At 17:26, Skywest 6819 calls for takeoff clearance at RWY22
At 17:30, ATC says Thanks, turn right heading 270, Runway 22, cleared
for takeoff. Since there was only one active runway, it is not
required that ATC specify the runway when issuing takeoff clearance.
At 17:35, Skywest 6819 acknowledges cleared for takeoff.

At 18:33, Eagle 882 calls ready for departure
At 18:36, ATC replies, Eagle 882, roger, hold short.
At 18:40, Eagle 882 acknowledges, Hold short of the runway.

At 18:57, Comair 191 advises he is ready for taxi instructions and
states that he has Alpha. At 13:30 the ATIS changed to Bravo and he
was not aware that the ATIS had changed .This means he has listened to
the Airport Terminal Information Service (ATIS) on a separate
frequency which gives him the active runway, winds, altimeter setting,
and other NOTAMS (Notice To Airman) about taxiway closures,
instrument approach outages, lights out of service, etc. You can also
hear it on the phone, as well. In the government pages of the white
pages, it's under Transportation, Department of, FAA, ATIS. To his
credit, CD caught this and re-issued and winds and altimeter to
Comair.

At 19:02, Comair 191 acknowledges that he is to taxi to rwy 22.
At 19:09, CD clears Eagle 882 for takeoff
At 19:11 CD calls radar contact on Skywest 6819 and gives him further
instrutions.

At 20:27, CD calls radar contact on Eagle 882 and gives clearance to
10,000FT.

At 20:48 CD goes on the land line and dials center (ARTCC).
At 20:55 CD again keys his mike and we hear the music. While waiting
for center, Skywest 6819 can be heard on the speaker in the background
saying he is passing 10,000ft.and requesting a turn to 300 degrees to
avoid weather. CD approves his request and immediately center comes
on the line and CD request a release on Comair. He had to be watching
Comair approaching the approach end of the short runway because he
call for the release in advance of him arriving at runway 22.


At 21:09 CD keys his mike and again we hear the music and hear him
tapping the flight progress strip for Comair191 on the console. He
asked center for a release on Comair and center issues the release, CD
gives his initials and hangs up the line.

He immediately calls another sector and requests the 300 heading for
Skywest 6819 to "get around some weather", but he had already approved
the turn for Skywest.

At 21:19, CD tells Skywest 6819 to contact center.
At 21:23 Skywest acknowledges the frequency change.

At 21:25 CD gives Eagle 882 a new heading
At 21:30 Eagle882 acknowledges the turn.

At 22:07 Comair 121 transmits that he is ready to go.

At 22:10 CD says Comair 191, Lexington Tower, fly runway heading,
cleared for takeoff.

If Comair 191 is at the approach end of the wrong runway, he is
nowhere near runway 22. In an interview CD acknowledges that he saw
Comair 191 on the wrong runway and NOT on the taxiway to runway 22,
but 30 minutes later changed his testimony.

At 22:14 Comair acknowledged fly runway heading, cleared for takeoff.

CD immediately focuses back on Eagle 882 and ...

At 22:17 CD asked Eagle 882 if the heading he gave him worked for him
or did he want a further turn to the northwest of the weather that's
ahead of him.

At 22:23 Eagle 882 says "That looks fantastic, thank you very much"

CD missed the response and...

At 22:25 CD transmits "Say again, please" to Eagle 882, while Comair
is rolling on the wrong runway. He is NOT doing traffic count as the
FAA is telling us.

At 22:26, Eagle882 repeats "This heading looks great,

At 22:30, CD is probably looking at the radar scope as he is talking
to Eagle 882 and giving him a frequency change to center.

This is 16 seconds after he cleared Comair for takeoff and he hasn't
seen him rolling on the wrong runway. He was supposed to scan his
runway when he cleared him for takeoff and should have noticed him on
the wrong runway. He claimed he did see him on the wrong runway but
said nothing to him and didn't cancel his takeoff clearance.

It's odd that a station agent for American Eagle saw Comair on the
wrong runway, but the controller claims he saw nothing,.....
eventually.

Here's the articles...

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/16486163.htm

and..

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky.../16486135.htm?
source=rss&channel=kentucky_local

In this second article, it states....

Damron told investigators that he did not know the plane had taken off
from the wrong runway until a union official, who had reviewed radar
data, told him. If Comair would have taken off on the right runway, he
would have contacted tower on departure and CD would have issued radar
contact. CD should have been at the radar scope waiting for Comairs
call instead of doing the traffic count.

According to the other tape I downloaded at the FAA site at...

http://www.faa.gov/data_statistics/a.../comair_tapes/

this one labeled..

ATC Phone Call to Fire and Rescue audio (MP3)*

CD pulled the crash phone and reported the aircraft crash, (an Alert
III ) at 06:29 into the tape.

Again, the crash phone recording was narrated by Diane English. The
tape runs from 1002 CUT-1013CUT on August 27, 2006

That means that CD pulls the hook at 1008:30 CUT. That is about 2
1/2 minutes after the crash. Traffic count doesn't take 2 1/2 minutes
to perform. The accident occurred at about 1006 CUT. CD had to be
doing something else for that other two minutes. What could he have
been doing for all that time? Maybe he took the clipboard over to the
radio to change stations. He wouldn't have gone to the bathroom when
he was expecting a call from Comair.

He tells the crash crew that the aircraft is off the approach end of
runway 8. That is the departure end of runway 26. 80 plus 180 degrees
is 260, BUT then he tells the crash crew the aircraft took off of
runway 22. I can't understand how he thought Comair took off runway
22 and ended up off the departure end of runway 26. If he took off of
22, he would have had to go off the right side of runway 22 before he
got halfway down the runway.

If there would have been a second controller working the radar scope,
CD could have been watching his runway a lot closer, but that is no
excuse when the runway is the primary responsibility. CD wasn't
focusing on his primary responsibility, the runway, but let his
attention focus in the wrong direction dealing with radar traffic in
the air. Traffic count had nothing to do with this accident.

CD had three departures in a short period of time with a lot of
coordination with ARTCC. He is listening to music in the background.
If he did the traffic count when he was finished talking with
Eagle882, Comair was at the departure end of runway 26 or colliding
into the trees off the departure end. Comair crashed before he started
the traffic count. He should have seen it happening. CD should have
been watching his runway. Aircraft in the air pose little threat to
safety compared to ones on the runway.

CD never did tell us why he wasn't looking at the radar scope and
telling Comair that he had radar contact on him. He should have been
wondering why no radar target showed up at the departure end on runway
22. The traffic count scenario is just smoke and mirrors.

Today, I read an article about the FAA refusing to have weather band
radios in the control towers siting it would be a distration. Here's
the article....

http://blogs.usatoday.com/weather/20..._yes_radi.html

According to a spokeswoman from the FAA, the decision to pull the
radios seeks to limit distractions for controllers and ensure safe
operation of the airspace.

We had a radio with a cd player in the tower cab at MYF and we used
to bring our own cd's to work and listen to them while working
traffic. Once at LGB tower, we had a portable TV in the tower cab
watching a football game and I forgot to take it home when the tower
closed. The next morning, the chief saw it and demanded to know who's
it was. I confessed and he chewed my butt until I promised him it
would never happen again.


Traffic count should be done on the hour and is a secondary function.
The crash occurred at about 6 minutes after the hour. Six minutes
prior to the accident, CD was busy with Eagle882 ready for departure.
Traffic count is not important. CD had three departures and all he had
to do was write down 0-2-0-0-0 on a clipboard to complete the traffic
count, Takes all of two seconds. Comair was on the wrong runway for
close to 25 seconds.

Here is some inside information for the layman, you don't have to turn
your back on the runway to do traffic count. You read the numbers off
the counter in front of you and put them on a clipboard, again, in
front of you. He should have been watching his radar scope when Comair
was no longer on the runway, again in front of him. There is NO
reason to turn your back.

The pilot and first officer were given toxicology tests after the
crash but I have never heard of a controller being tested for drugs or
alcohol following and accident or incident. We hear of the TSA people
reporting pilots when they smell alcohol on their breath and they have
been pulled off of airliners and registered massive amounts of alcohol
in their systems.

Since the 70's, control towers that used to be above the terminals
were moved across the airport and the public never came in contact
with us if we didn't want them around. At Christmas, pilots used to
drop off gifts for us, it's an old tradition. We got candy and
cookies, but the main item offered to us was booze, and lots of it.
Why would you want to give your controller a bottle of scotch, I never
understood it. When I tell people about all the drugs being used on
the job, the number one response I get is "Well, it's a really
stressful job, isn't it?" I guess they feel if you are in a stressful
job, you ought to be able to shoot up a little heroin now and then.

The FAA knows that the public knows nothing about the functions of a
control tower and it is easy to "hoodwink" the masses. Now you know
the truth.

I came across a letter to AvWeb from a controller claiming things are
worse now than when I blew the whistle. AvWeb has been able to
confirm her identity. Her letter is at ....

http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...printable.html

I have been at this for close to 20 years now. Who is looking out for
the safety of the flying public? The FAA ALWAYS says safety is their
number one concern. If that was true, they wouldn't have hired one on
my co-workers after he had been busted twice in the US Navy for
trafficing in drugs. And another who would come to work drunk once a
week. They would not have hired me when they knew I had vision
problems. But they fired me when I had seen it all too many times and
told my chief we were getting tipped off about random drug testing and
over half of us were using on the job. He was the one who tipped us
off the day before the drug team arrived so we could switch shifts
with a non-using controller, if we could find one. And the guy who
the chief told was the guy who was dealing all the drugs.

I have played tapes of telephone calls with my co-workers where they
admit knowledge of druguse on the job to my Congressman, Duncan
Hunter, and to the press in San Diego. Nothing is done. I have sent
the tapes to the Aviation Subcommittee of Congress and to the White
House. Nothing is done.

Who is going to stop this from happening again and again. We have been
ignored, attacked, and accused of having our own agenda by the
press, government officials, and family members of such tragedies as
TW800, Swissair111, Egyptair990, and ValuJet 592. Now one of the
Comair191 family members has asked me to remove him from my mailing
list.

We are the head wiring experts from Boeing and the Dept. of Defense,
airline pilots, two FAA lead airline inspectors, an FAA security
expert who reported problems at Boston Logan and resigned after the
FAA cooked his reports (before 9/11), an airline mechanic, and the
inventor of the smoke hood for airline cockpits. Everyone talks about
wanting to make sure nothing like this happens again, but when we give
them what they need to do something about it, it's "shoot the
messenger".

The press could report these crimes, but they refuse to let the people
know the truth in our land of the free. I have told reporters that if
they get this story past their editor, the next big story they will be
working on is the bear problem at the dump. How can our President say
people are jealous of our freedom?

Now YOU know the truth about what happened to Comair191. The NTSB
final report will say that the controller had his back turned away
from the runway and nothing more. If you don't believe me, look at how
the NTSB covered up the crash of VJ592 and screwed over the families
there. You can read all about it on my website at....

http://users.sdccu.net/chickenlittle

The Congress won't let me testify because they can't have everyone
knowing the real story about aviation safety and the way they are
watching over the system. We will just have to hear about more
innocent people dying by the hundreds over and over again. I will be
wasting my time for decades to come.

Regards,


James Bergquist
Air Safety Activist
Former USAF and FAA air traffic controller
Former San Diego Country NATCA representative

wrote:


Here is some inside information for the layman, you don't have to turn
your back on the runway to do traffic count. You read the numbers off
the counter in front of you and put them on a clipboard, again, in
front of you. He should have been watching his radar scope when Comair
was no longer on the runway, again in front of him. There is NO
reason to turn your back.


All traffic count is entered into the computer each hour. This computer
is at the supervisors desk. Which way does the desk face? At a radar
facility the only traffic count on the counter is the local ops, usually
touch and goes. All itinerant traffic is on a strip. These strips are
collected from where they were last used and brought back to the
computer for counting then bundled to be saved as they are legal
documents. Nobody uses a clipboard anymore, every facility that does
not have automated counting, which is every small and medium sized
facility, does it the same way and has for at least the last couple of
years.



First this.....

The pilot and first officer were given toxicology tests after the
crash but I have never heard of a controller being tested for drugs or
alcohol following and accident or incident.


Then this.....



I have been at this for close to 20 years now.



If you've been at this for six months you'd know how often controllers
get tested for some relatively minor incidents.









Who is going to stop this from happening again and again. We have been
ignored, attacked, and accused of having our own agenda by the
press, government officials, and family members of such tragedies as
TW800, Swissair111, Egyptair990, and ValuJet 592. Now one of the
Comair191 family members has asked me to remove him from my mailing
list.


Yeah, wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you're nothing
more than a dope smoking loser.





The Congress won't let me testify because they can't have everyone
knowing the real story about aviation safety and the way they are
watching over the system. We will just have to hear about more
innocent people dying by the hundreds over and over again. I will be
wasting my time for decades to come.


Wasted, the word is wasted.

What's the point of your rant? The crew is responsible for the safety
of the flight, not ATC. The crew screwed up and died. Case closed.

If you're not willing to accept the responsibility of being pilot in
command, maybe you shouldn't have the privilege, either.

--
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Mxsmanic wrote:

If you're not willing to accept the responsibility of being pilot in
command, maybe you shouldn't have the privilege, either.

Pot, Kettle, Black. Real World, Simulator, or otherwise.

BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.wizard.com/~tyketto
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A Guy Called Tyketto writes:

Pot, Kettle, Black. Real World, Simulator, or otherwise.

I don't see the connection.

--
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What if the controller actually went for a coffee break? I don't know
if that is a violation of any ATC rules, but from the pilot's
perspective it is a non issue. After a clearance is issued and
accepted, the ball is in the pilot's court. ATC can't be monitoring
his every move.

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Mxsmanic wrote:
A Guy Called Tyketto writes:

Pot, Kettle, Black. Real World, Simulator, or otherwise.

I don't see the connection.


Simple. as PIC, it is your responsibility to have the
understanding of regulations, where to get knowledge of said
regulations, have current charts onboard, and be aware of current
NOTAMs in place for a given field. That is just among the number of
other things PIC needs.

You have admitted yourself that you do not posess knowledge of
said regulations. When you asked about them, and were given URLs to
find them as they are publically available, you refused to look at said
links for regulations, and to an extent, argued against looking at them
for various reasons.

In short, you are blaming them for not being responsible... the
same irresponsibilities you lack in yourself. Like I said, Pot, Kettle.
Black.

BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.wizard.com/~tyketto
PGP: 1024D/E319F0BF 6980 AAD6 7329 E9E6 D569 F620 C819 199A E319 F0BF

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A Guy Called Tyketto writes:

You have admitted yourself that you do not posess knowledge of
said regulations. When you asked about them, and were given URLs to
find them as they are publically available, you refused to look at said
links for regulations, and to an extent, argued against looking at them
for various reasons.

In short, you are blaming them for not being responsible... the
same irresponsibilities you lack in yourself.

They are subject to FAA regulations. I am not.

Rest assured, however, that in their situation, I would have been on
the correct runway, I'd have had the current numbers, and I would have
walked into the correct aircraft on the first try prior to the flight.

--
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Mxsmanic wrote:
A Guy Called Tyketto writes:

You have admitted yourself that you do not posess knowledge of
said regulations. When you asked about them, and were given URLs to
find them as they are publically available, you refused to look at said
links for regulations, and to an extent, argued against looking at them
for various reasons.

In short, you are blaming them for not being responsible... the
same irresponsibilities you lack in yourself.

They are subject to FAA regulations. I am not.

It shows.

Rest assured, however, that in their situation, I would have been on
the correct runway, I'd have had the current numbers, and I would have
walked into the correct aircraft on the first try prior to the flight.

I would be more inclined to believe the US has spy satellites
over Canada and Mexico than to believe the above statement. I have more
than a number of fair arguments against your statement that have
already been stated by others in this NG. I don't need to go into them
again. Needless to say, as you don't possess the credentials to fly in
the US, we will never know if the above would be true. I'm actually
glad of that.

BL.
- --
Brad Littlejohn | Email:
Unix Systems Administrator, |
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.wizard.com/~tyketto
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