Mapmaker Cleared Of Liability In Takeoff Crash

The lawsuits that resulted from the crash of Comair Flight 5191 are gradually being resolved. Of the 47 suits filed on behalf of deceased passengers, 16 have been settled to date. Now, a suit which blamed Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Sanderson for providing charts lacking detail on airport construction has been set aside by a federal judge.

As ANN reported, Flight 5191 was the CRJ-100 regional jet which took off from the wrong runway at Lexington Blue Grass Airport on August 27, 2006. The plane ran out of runway before it was ready to rotate for takeoff. Of the 50 passengers and crew onboard, the only survivor was co-pilot James Polehinke.

According to The Associated Press, lawyers for Polehinke and his fellow crew members blamed Jeppesen in part for the accident, saying the chart in the cockpit that morning didn't show a taxiway barrier that directed planes along an alternate route to the main runway. Polehinke asserted that was one reason the CRJ lined up on runway 26, instead of runway 22 as directed.

The chart was overdue for an update from Jeppesen... but that point was rendered moot when Judge Karl Forester determined that at the time the update was scheduled, the barrier would not have been in place anyway. Also factoring into the decision was Polehinke's own testimony, that he couldn't recall the Jeppesen charts being used by either pilot that morning, and that as a rule, he only referred to the charts when he thought he needed help navigating an airport.

Forester also pointed out the FAA had issued the appropriate notices to airmen warning of the changes.

The summary judgment by Forrester effectively ends Jeppesen's involvement in the case brought on behalf of Polehinke and his deceased crewmates. The case now goes to court, and that's scheduled for August 4.

Robert Clifford, a lawyer representing some of the victims' families, said the decision was no surprise. "Our focus and beliefs remain... that this tragedy occurred when two pilots operated a plane on the wrong runway and should have known better, on their own without any involvement from any outside source."

FMI: www.jeppesen.com, www.comair.com