Today it was announced that Comair has filed suit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The regional airline contends that the FAA was negligent in having only one air traffic controller on duty in the tower at Lexington, Kentucky's Bluegrass Airport on the morning last August 27 when Comair Flight 5191 crashed after attempting to take off from the wrong runway.An article about the lawsuit, published on Forbes.com reports:
Comair claims the FAA should have staffed the control tower with two controllers. The lone controller on duty that morning had turned away to do some administrative tasks before Comair Flight 5191 tried to take off.The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, follows a previous suit in which Comair that the FAA failed to inspect and approve construction along the taxiway that led to the runway that Flight 5191 should have taken. The FAA was dismissed from that lawsuit earlier this week, although the airport is still a defendant.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said if a second controller had been on duty, that person would have been staffing the aiport's radar, watching flights in the air from the tower or a windowless room at the base of the tower.
"The FAA disagrees there was any negligence on its part," she said.
