Comair Crash Final Words May Be Released

The contents of the cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage of Comair Flight 5191 have helped the FAA and NTSB understand the puzzling events preceding the doomed flight's takeoff.

Flight 5191 impacted trees on a horse farm immediately after taking off from Lexington's Blue Grass Airport on August 27th, killing 49 of the 50 people on board. The on-scene investigation provided confirmation that the commercial jet, which took off on the wrong runway, had no chance to properly lift off due to the insufficient runway length.

Review of the cockpit voice recorder and interviews with witnesses suggest that the pilots taxied onto the shorter runway because of confusion caused by runway construction. The lone air traffic controller on duty cleared the flight for takeoff on the airport's longer runway, but then turned away to perform a traffic count. According to the NTSB, the time from the start of Flight 5191's takeoff roll to the time of impact was only 36 seconds. The controller didn't realize there was a problem until he heard the crash.

Now the FAA has stated it is planning to publically release the recording of the last conversation that took place between Flight 5191's pilots. The final words may shed light on what the flight's first officer, who was critically injured but survived, has been unable to recall about the moments before takeoff.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the release could come next week, but there is no definite release date.

The crash of Flight 5191 is the worst American air disaster since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, also shortly after takeoff, in November of 2001. All 260 people on board Flight 587 were killed.