http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/06/30/ap5169810.html
LEXINGTON, Ky. - A federal judge has ruled a company that designed an
outdated airport chart wasn't responsible for the Comair plane crash that
killed 49 people, a judgment that relies in part on sealed testimony from
co-pilot James Polehinke, the lone survivor.
Judge Karl Forester's summary judgment concludes Jeppesen Sanderson wasn't
to blame in the Aug. 27, 2006, crash of Comair 5191, in which the jet took
off from a too-short runway at Blue` Grass Airport.
Lawyers for Polehinke and the crew members killed in the crash had blamed
Jeppesen in part for the accident because the chart in the cockpit that
morning failed to reflect a taxiway barrier that forced planes to take a
slightly different route to the main runway.
However, in Forester's ruling Friday he found no evidence the Comair pilots
relied on that chart when they steered the jet onto the wrong runway. The
10-page ruling includes some of the first information from a deposition
lawyers took of Polehinke. That deposition and others in the case have not
been released to the public.
Forester said Polehinke testified he couldn't recall the Jeppesen charts
being used by either pilot that morning, and he insisted there was no
confusion in the cockpit. Polehinke said as a practice, he only used the
charts when he thought he needed help navigating an airport.
"This does not establish any probability that either pilot was actually
using the chart to guide the taxi on the day of the accident or that the
chart misled them," Forester wrote. "Instead, the inferences from the
evidence are to the contrary."
While Forester acknowledges that the chart didn't reflect the taxiway
barrier the morning of the crash, he said the company's map didn't need to
be updated because the information was given to pilots in another form,
known as notices to airmen or NOTAMs.
Jeppesen's design of Blue Grass Airport was overdue for an update, but that
update would have come earlier in August, and it wouldn't have reflected the
barrier either, Forester found.
Calls to Jeppesen and Polehinke's attorneys were not immediately returned
Monday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - A federal judge has ruled a company that designed an
outdated airport chart wasn't responsible for the Comair plane crash that
killed 49 people, a judgment that relies in part on sealed testimony from
co-pilot James Polehinke, the lone survivor.
Judge Karl Forester's summary judgment concludes Jeppesen Sanderson wasn't
to blame in the Aug. 27, 2006, crash of Comair 5191, in which the jet took
off from a too-short runway at Blue` Grass Airport.
Lawyers for Polehinke and the crew members killed in the crash had blamed
Jeppesen in part for the accident because the chart in the cockpit that
morning failed to reflect a taxiway barrier that forced planes to take a
slightly different route to the main runway.
However, in Forester's ruling Friday he found no evidence the Comair pilots
relied on that chart when they steered the jet onto the wrong runway. The
10-page ruling includes some of the first information from a deposition
lawyers took of Polehinke. That deposition and others in the case have not
been released to the public.
Forester said Polehinke testified he couldn't recall the Jeppesen charts
being used by either pilot that morning, and he insisted there was no
confusion in the cockpit. Polehinke said as a practice, he only used the
charts when he thought he needed help navigating an airport.
"This does not establish any probability that either pilot was actually
using the chart to guide the taxi on the day of the accident or that the
chart misled them," Forester wrote. "Instead, the inferences from the
evidence are to the contrary."
While Forester acknowledges that the chart didn't reflect the taxiway
barrier the morning of the crash, he said the company's map didn't need to
be updated because the information was given to pilots in another form,
known as notices to airmen or NOTAMs.
Jeppesen's design of Blue Grass Airport was overdue for an update, but that
update would have come earlier in August, and it wouldn't have reflected the
barrier either, Forester found.
Calls to Jeppesen and Polehinke's attorneys were not immediately returned
Monday.