Quote :

"aren't there water sprinklers inside commerical jets?"

it would be heavy (which is a big factor in aviation...hell, airliners don't even usually carry a full bag of gas for that reason), and water isn't much good on a jet fuel fire.

Quote :

"seriously though, how come they weren't able to bring the plane to a rest when the saw the end of the runway approaching, or at least when they were on unpaved ground? half a mile isn't enough? it couldn't have been going that fast."

jets of that type have a decision speed and a rotation speed. after decision speed (based on weight, length of rwy, etc), you won't be able to stop by the end. rotation speed (dependant on weight, temperation, field elevation) is when you raise the nose and take off. those two speeds are often nearly coincident. my guesstimate is that a jet of that type probably rotates around 135-140 kts (~ 150-160 mph), so they could've potentially been going pretty damned fast.

in hindsight, departing the end of the runway would've probably kept more (maybe all of) the people alive. if they were gonna fly, they could've pushed max thrust (if they didn't), raised the gear as soon as they lifted off, then kept it in ground effect until they had to pull over the fence...but that's REALLY squeezing every last ounce of performance from the jet.

Quote :

"^ but i am under the impression it never took off the ground, not even a foot. it just rolled off the runway on its wheels and carried on rolling in the field and then crashed into the trees."

No, they took it airborne. that 5000' is padded a pretty fair amount (so you don't have to overstress your engines, so you maintain a standard climb gradient on the departure, and I think they figure on clearing a 50' obstacle on the departure end of the runway by a certain amount...and so you aren't trying to fly within a knot or two of the stall speed or having to fly perfectly to squeeze every last bit of the jet's performance.)

8/28/2006 6:37:34 PM

most likely pulled up hard, got it airborne, stalled, came back down, clipped trees, boom

8/29/2006 12:59:54 AM

either that or just couldn't climb quickly enough to avoid an obstacle (trees, etc)

8/29/2006 1:17:34 AM

Runway Route Changed Before Ky. Crash
Taxi Route Altered Week Before Comair Commuter Jet Crash

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/28/national/main1938022.shtml

and

Quote :

". At some point the pilots seemed to realize the runway was short, but made no attempt to brake,"

If true, probably because they realized they were well beyond the point of no return

8/29/2006 1:19:21 AM

News story stated they discussed there were no lights on the runway and didn't think anything of it.


At least this won't happen again.

8/29/2006 12:21:32 PM

how many snakebite wounds does the copilot have?

8/30/2006 12:21:17 AM

I love how they're focusing attention on the Control Tower now

8/30/2006 3:15:05 PM