On Sunday morning, a Comair Flight bound for Atlanta took the wrong runway upon takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky. All but one of the 50 people onboard were killed. We mourn the loss of life in this tragedy. For more news on this investigation, a fuller report is available here.
What does this mean for travellers? Comair is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta, and both are thus under bankruptcy restructuring.
The plane, a CRJ-100 made by Canadian transportation manufacturer Bombardier, was a 50-seater. Both Bombardier and its competitor for regional plane manufacturing, Brazillian company Embraer announced last year they would be discontinuing the 50-seater regional jet. With increased fuel costs, there has been a return to turboprops as a serious consideration in smaller markets and a new class of 70-100 seater more fuel efficient jets have replaced smaller planes, allowing more seat availability per flight.
Either way, Comair operates a fleet consisting exclusively of Canadair Regional Jets(CRJs) in 40,50, and 70 seater configurations and operates 920 daily flights. It is based out of the Cincinatti area. Due to its financial hardships, Comair has been pressing its employees for labor concessions, and Delta has put out a request for proposals for independent carriers to operate some of Comair’s flights, which could leave the carrier in a larger financial mess.
Comair and the CRJ both have reliable safety records, but this tragedy as well as Comair and Delta’s handling of it may dictate their future. So far, there have been complaints about the manner in which Comair notified the families of victims.