Crashing Seconds After Takeoff in Kentucky | How Two Deadly Mistakes Sealed the Fate of 121 People 

Always a weird feeling to the stomach, hearing voices of people, who are near few moments from death, Rest In Peace, The Flight channel thank you for making these videos

The panic & anguish in that Captain’s voice was hard to hear. So very sad.

James Polehinke, the first officer who was sole survivor of first crash was greatly affected by survivor's guilt that he always crying at night and even to the point almost took his own lives plenty of times knowing he held responsible for the death of 49 people and yet he survived as a "punishment" by bearing those heavy burden for the rest of his life.

When the F/O commented on "no lights" should have been a tipoff. I've seen other videos where pilots ignored strange conditions and continued on.

These 2 CVRs are haunting. So many mistakes. RIP.

The pacing of your videos is brilliant. There are Hollywood directors who can't build tension as effectively as you do.

It never fails to amaze me that such obvious things to take into consideration when operating an aircraft go ignored! The cries of terror when the flight crew fully recognize what’s about to happen are terrorizing! RIP to all the souls on these flights!!

Listening to these final moments of the lives of the crews is gut wrenching. God Bless all involved.

Man, that Flight 2605 CVR hits me hard everytime I hear it. His horrified shrill of immense panic and dread will haunt me forever. The shear terror in the pilots screams knowing that his fate is sealed and in less than 5 seconds his inevitable death awaits him. F***ing terrifying and unfathomably heartbreaking. God rest all the souls lost in both these tragedies.

Hearing the first conversation ... the noise of surprise before they crashed... makes this all the more scary and sad. The POV at 13:30 made my heart race... horrifying. The screaming right before they crashed. ouch. Rest In Peace to everyone who passed away.

Living in Lexington, that was terrible day. After this accident, Bluegrass Airport extended some if not all the runways and cleared the trees surrounding the airport. If memory serves me, the plane came to rest a few hundred feet from the aircraft fire training center for our firefighters. RIP to those that were lost and you’ll never be forgotten.

The CVRs from both of these incidents are the most haunting and horrific things I have ever heard. Especially the screams of the captain in the second one, the sounds of a man screaming for his life.. it's just devastatingly sad to hear. I've heard both recordings before, gives me chills every time. Also, I didn't know that the FO who was the PF was the sole survivor in the first crash. That poor man. I'm sure all these men were good pilots, but sadly, mistakes happen. I say a prayer for all involved. May the souls of the dead rest in peace. 🙏✈️ Great video as always Flight Channel

It’s so sad that they almost were able to take off, just a few more feet and the rotation would have been complete, that yelp at the end was so horrible, I hope the first officer can find peace after this, great job again flight channel.

That recording of that sidestep accident always gives me chills 💔💔💔💔

This is so sad to hear the crew in their final moments. I would hate to be a family member reliving these tragic moments. My deepest condolences to them.

That poor man, knowing his demise was imminent. It demonstrates how everything can change in what feels like the blink of an eye. Great upload again. Thanks TFC.

Of all the accidents I‘ve read about or seen videos of, these two are among the absolute saddest. Really terrible. Rest in peace.

If they had just been paying attention. Details matter in aviation. Thank you for a fine vid, TFC... you and Allec Ibay are the best...

Just imagine being in charge of a large aircraft that is careering at full thrust, while fatally damaged, off a runway towards airport buildings, possibly containing thousands of people, and of course knowing you and all your passengers are about to die. A nightmare became real. Rest in Peace everyone. It's hard to be critical of the crew. They failed to relate and be alert this one time. I would hope airports would have the technology to realise and alert them now, but I think not. Terrible to hear a truck driver was also killed by a main landing gear bogey while doing nights in a relaxed, safe environment. Awful tragedy. (I haven't commented here on the first incident)

These vids are creating better pilots. Thank you.

Thank your for this brilliant video! Very sad that a pilot error led to such a loss of life. May they all rest in peace.

I've been watching this channel for years and I've never posted a comment before, but the end with the voice of the pilots.....that shook me. I sat here and felt my heart sank. I can't imagine sitting in that cockpit knowing you're about to crash and die within seconds.

I saw the first incident on this channel quite awhile back, so apparently you added the second incident to it because of the similarities. Good job.

I am sitting here watching this at the 6m30s mark going, "Oh no, no, no, No!!! That is not 22!!!!" This is so heartbreaking and emotionally sad to watch!!! Great video though and very well done but so heartbreaking too. 💔

I just love your videos...the theme, quality, music...RIP to all those who died

Imagine sitting in your dump truck then see a 120 tonne + jet flying at you .

On the day of the crash of Flight 2605, 8 of the people onboard were missing and considered dead, probably due to the severity of the crash. Three of the recovered bodies were not identified. Also despite the plane crashing into a building which normally has people in it, the truck driver was apparently the only ground fatality. But it has also been reported that two people in the Eastern Airlines building were also killed.

I remember flying into Osaka Japan (KIX) from LAX on Northwest Orient Airlines back in 1981. As an employee of the airline I was allowed to fly in the jumpseat because I was on a maintenance flight on a must fly basis and the entire ship was oversold. we had a ship (N610US) in Osaka with a hydraulic failure and I was to join the rest of the special NWA maintenance crew. I noticed two things, the landing crew was extremely tired and somewhat disoriented because of the weather challenges . They forgot to ask permission to land from the tower , and the auto brakes failed upon touchdown for some reason. In aviation it's not just one big thing that causes catastrophic death and destruction it is however one little thing after the other that leads to the end result being apocalyptic. Do used to be an old saying that if you put out all the little fires there will never be a big fire.

Sometimes, just a little thing taken for granted at the wrong time can lead to tragedy.

It is so good that we learn valuable lessons from such incidents and as a result, aviation becomes ever safer. But it is also so sad that such disasters happen in the first place - especially when they could have been so easily prevented.

The last recording was.. terrifying.

Sir - I've watched every one of your videos and always look forward to the next one you produce. I've seen how your technique just keeps getting better and better and I salute you for the time, energy, and research you use to create these detailed and very respectful videos. I was wondering if you would consider making a video in the future that details the April 1973 mid-air collision between a NASA Convair 990 and a P-3 Orion in California. Thanks for considering this, and thank you for your superb channel.

The last recording is horrific.

Another great video. I am INSPIRED by you to make my channel into something as great as this. Rest in Peace to those who died, May the Souls who lost find peace, and may aviation become greater everyday. Thank you, TFC, for these amazing and well made videos over the years. [EDIT] I'm currently writing a script for an episode of the Uberlingen Midair Collision, will be released before next year!

It's the embodiment of the old adage: "A long walk, off a short pier...".

Excellent account and production, once again. I was glued to it the entire time. So very sad these two situations. Mistakes happen, we are all human. Unfortunately we don’t always adequately predict the safety nets we need in place until it is too late. As a light aircraft pilot, I was taught to use the runway identifier always. For the comair flight, I was surprised that the taxi instructions did not include “cross runway 26…”. I gather that this was implemented after this accident. Sympathy to all involved.

Seems to me that it would be easy to install a green an red signal with the flight number along the taxiways so that a plane couldn't mistake the wrong runway. All a plane would have to do is follow the green signs with their flight number on it. If their number was red, they'd just hold at that position. An LED sign board wouldn't be too expensive.

Now this was a video I wish I hadn’t watched. I wasn’t expecting that at all. So eerie listening to the pilots and a few moments later, the crash. Imagine starting your everyday routine and not knowing it will be your last day on earth. I hope the first officer receives therapy for PTSD and survivor’s guilt if he has it.

It’s midnight in INDIA but your video is more important then sleep! What an amazing video, absolutely loved it!

WIth respect to the Comair 191 crash, not part of the CVR here was the FO mentioning that he had landed at the airport earlier, and found some of the lighting INOP (not operational), and thus set up a bias for the crew to not become alarmed when they saw no runway lighting. It was clearly a crew mistake since ALL of the lighting had been turned off, including runway centerline, edge lighting, end lights, etc. The airport had turned all of the lighting off to clearly indicate the runway was not in use. By contrast, runway 22, clearly visible to the pilots, was fully lit. The NTSB actually taxied another Comair plane of same type in the same night conditions and found the runway they took off from, 26, was clearly marked and that inattention and bias to expect "problems with the lighting" had caused them to accept the incorrect runway. The other factor was the tower controller not monitoring the plane's take off, which they are not required to do. It was a clear night, and the controller saw that the 26 runway was all dark, and the 22 runway was lit up, so it didn't occur to them that the aircraft would attempt to take off on the incorrect runway. What has changed since 2006? Actually quite a bit. This and other accidents have caused many airports to refurbish their signage and taxi/runway markings. In addition, GPS and in-cockpit displays of the airport with taxi and runways with the location of both the aircraft, and other aircraft as well are standard or becoming standard on larger/commercial aircraft. Finally, the FAA has (fairly recently) been instituting procedures designed to reduce "runway incursions" or multiple aircraft using the same runway at the same time. This involves requiring all aircraft to positively read back the runway assignments to the ground controllers, although to be fair, many pilots think this is more to the point of having the pilots get the runway assignments on tape to relieve the FAA and the controllers of legal responsibility. What else could be done? There are still a large number of aircraft without these kinds of electronic aids. Although it is very expensive to have them installed in the airplane (due to many factors), the now very common combination of a GPS with a tablet computer or similar gives a reasonable cost solution, so it will be seen if this significantly reduces accidents (for all aircraft types).

6:15 Its like I'm watching a horror movie and they're walking into the enemy's trap..."NOOOOO DONT!"

I have heard the 2nd CVR before as well and cant agree more it is THE most horrifying CVR ever in aviation history, only just before the CVR of JAL 123. From their voices you can feel what "at the face of death" sounds and seems like. The F/O hadnt given up tbh but the Captain seems he had!

I think I remember these a while back. In the first one, they took off from the wrong runway and crashed with the F/O being the only survivor. In the second one, they landed on the wrong runway. They realized their mistake too late, to which nothing could be done. So tragic and hearing the audio from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) made me very emotional.

Dude you are amazing. Great attention to detail. Your channel is going places.

The survival of many people is written with the blood of the dead!! RIP to all whom contributed to increased safety measures of today.,,. Thanks to TFC for another outstanding video presentation l!!

I have long wondered why each & every runway is not REQUIRED to be marked with a brightly lit large Day & Night # on both ends. As opposed to small signs or pavement markings which wear off or are easily obscured. This would seen a NO BRAINER, not overly expensive solution to these mishaps. RIP to the 48 Souls, God rest you in His Care....

Yikes. Haunting stuff. I knew about these incidents, but hearing the last words....brings it to another level. RIP, all who perished.

three big mistakes I noticed one is the pilots did not cross runway 26 and taxi towards the hold short line of 22 as they should have known by looking at the airport chart.... two during taxing they were having a casual conversation which in my opinion should never happen especially during this phase of flight I think they should be completely focused on the task at hand making sure that everything is done correctly once they are actually at cruise and autopilot they can have a few minutes to chit chat but any phase of flight pre-take off take off climb and then descent approach to land landing and taxing need fleet focus... number three during takeoff run they did not notice that their magnetic heading was incorrect the magnetic heading should have been runway heading therefore they should have noticed that their heading was off by 40 degrees and corrected immediately abort take off run immediately.... and of course runway lights.

I'm sure the flight channel has done this one before? And the Mexican one with that horrific CVR

Knowing you made a fatal error and too late to recoup the jet has got to be one of the hardest feelings ever. Being the sole survivor had to be the hardest thing to except. Survivors guilt I heard is a mountain to climb wondering why you alone lived. That's one question I hope I never have to answer. With the second one screaming out of fear and for your life in a spot where you are helpless. Seeing your end coming at you at 100+ mph I can't even phantom.

The last recording gave me chills.

Beautifully done.

14:06 Never heard anything like this before in my life. May Heaven protect these precious souls.

I had heard those cockpit recordings before of 2605. Terrifying to hear a person right before they are killed. I don't understand why they were not more careful as they approached to get it right (literally). With the technology we have now, why can't we have large red exes on the closed runways? Like on the ends?

This was atrocious bad luck mixed with a slightly lax crew for the first accident. I so feel for them, as we all have days like that...Just they don't quite end in such tragedy. A few extra feet was all they needed. Edit: Excellent quality video.

The difference between runway 26 and 22 is 40 degrees, that's big however the two runways and taxiways merge at one end or used too. Before this accident I was flying a CRJ out of LEX regularly. One an early predawn departure we taxied out my F/O said stop we are lining up on the wrong runway!. I set the brakes told the tower we needed a minute and got the chart out and we both confirmed we were on the correct runway (the long one). The F/O after departure apologized for his confusion, I told him no apology necessary he called out what he thought was my error and that was his job. Until we both agreed on which runway to use we were not going anywhere. LEX after this crash redesigned the taxiways so that it would be much harder if not impossible to line up on the wrong runway. if you look at the taxi diagram now it is not the same as when this crash occurred. This is the first time I've heard the cockpit tape, it appears to me they were not conducting the departure in a professional manner. The reason the runway lights were off was to keep anyone from mistaking it for the longer active runway. The crew missed this and took off on an unlit runway, that should have gotten their attention even before they advanced the power levers. If they had recognized their mistake halfway down the runway or later they would not have been able to stop they could have rotated a bit earlier, although below normal rotation speed the CRJ 200 would have flown and cleared the approach light extensions. Hitting the extensions is what brought them down. My sincerest sympathies to the families, we are all human the lessons learned from the accident no doubt has saved lives.

I mowed the grass at this airport for two years, and I always thought that the runway was unusually short.. wow. Rest in Peace to those that perished.

Singapore 006 is another accident similar to these. 747 collided with construction equipment after trying to takeoff from the wrong runway.

No excuses on this one. All the clues were there. Jesus, they even had no lights on the runway and still continued the takeoff. Unforgiveable.

I just cant imagine what went thru their heads after the first impact...RIP to all the lives...

I've listened to that second CVR from TFC prior vid and another one. That never gets easier to hear...

Every time I hear this over the years (Commair)....I always feel as if the two Pilots have/had some sort of weird affected way of speaking to each other? Like it's pilot code for "how cool are we".

The voice of the captain before he hit the building sent shivvers down my spine...pure terror!!

I am surprised 17 people survived

Hey man. You should take a look at Olympic Airways flight 411 from Athens to New York in 1978. This was an incredible story of human intervention and bravery

Excellent as usual - but that DC10 captain...I think you should add a warning that the CVR/ATC recordings could be distressing to hear.

If complacency has a sound, it would be the pilot and FO's voices on Comair 5191 6:01

Is this a re-upload? Great video as always!

I don't understand why any of the channels that have covered this fail to mention that the Capt. and crew first boarded the wrong aircraft, and were just about to fire it up when ground personel pointed out their mistake. I'm sure this affected their situational awareness.

You just get BETTER AND BETTER at these videos!!! This was amazing. So terribly tragic though. To hear those pilots and FE as they can’t get lift is heartbreaking 💔

The second brief recap of the confused state of the Captain is also deeply disturbing. This approach was going to be different, at best, doing a sidestep at such a low altitude! This landing approach should not have been attempted except as a low approach to see if it was even possible to safely transition to the right runway. They were unprepared and it showed!

Oh my heavens, the audio from the cockpit was harrowing and will give me nightmares. I am so sorry for the loss of life. May they all rest in peace.

me- terrified of flying also me- binging this entire channel

The Flight Channel. Rated “R”. Now Playing.

Those ambient sounds in the cockpit and on the runway are top notch. Even the wind howl make me cold only by hearing it. Great video, as always.

Captain sounded like someone I’d have a beer with, and I don’t even drink, he was cooler than a fan.

Amazing video as always!!

Please God, let there be no more new videos 🙏

This accident hits close to home as Lexington is my hometown. I fly GA aircraft and at the time of this accident, my plane was based at KLEX. I remember a few days before this mishap, I too had trouble figuring how to taxi to runway 22 and this was during the daytime. Nevertheless, a lot had to happen for this flight to go wrong. Definitely, a tragedy that still affects the Lexington community.

this literally happened just up the road from me in lexington. awful. just awful. and could have 100% been avoided. :(

Hearing their final words is so chilling rip everyone onboard

Imagine actually having been by Lexington Airport, which I have. Really surprised that this even happened.

So well done! Just amazing especially how you have doing similar flights years apart!! Amazing work my friend! From One RU-vidr to another bravo!! Thank You!

At the beginning of aviation plane crashes were 90% caused by material defect. Today this is vice versa. According to the NTSB investigations performed into air accidents, over 88 percent of all chartered plane crashes are attributed, at least in part, to pilot error. In private or general aviation, loss of aircraft control by the pilot is the number one cause of plane and helicopter crashes.

I think that if any body wants to become a pilot, he should watch the flight channel! I really mean it, this amazing channel teaches you many things, and makes you learn from mistakes! Kudos to the owner of the channel!

God bless 🙏 the pilots and the crew on board 🙏🙏🙏

The only survivor was the man at the controls - and he, maimed and crippled? What horrendous guilt. Life is cruel sometimes...

"strucks" 😆 Great vid as usual, TFC.

Really sad, RIP to all.

Chilling. I don’t know WHY I keep playing the ending over and over listening to those pilots. I’m probably wrong but at the 4:11-4:12 mark it sounds like the pilot screams “brace for impact “

Great videos... I have a question and forgive my potential ignorance.. in the first case, could it have been possible at a small airport, with little traffic that early in the AM, for the tower to not have visually noticed the aircraft was lined up at the wrong runway? Not laying blame... just asking if it's crazy to have expected at all, ever... or is the answer, it could have been possible and this could have been averted but would have been a lucky chance?

I loved the vid thank you so much for your incredible redaction from this incident !!

I’ve said it many times. This channel is always very great. Graphics are awesome and the form factor for broadcast is amazing. It’s not a Walt Disney production but this is truly amazing. My heart goes out to all involved in any accident, but these stories need to be recounted and remembered. Great work!!

New video dude! Keep up on that good work!

I don't know why, but I enjoy watching these videos with popcorn and diet coke

The videos are great sad these situations happen

A totally unavoidable accident flight 5191. Interesting that other F/O stated the Captain went by the book, not this time. Those CVR's are really harrowing. RIP to all.

I recommend you read the NTSB report on Comair 5191. This crash was officially blamed on pilot error, and the pilots undeniably were to blame. But like many crashes, it was a ‘perfect storm’ of circumstances that combined to set the stage for disaster. Pilot inattention to detail, understaffed tower, confusing runway/taxiway layout, darkness, poor local procedures, inadequate safeguards built into airline operating procedures. If you read the NTSB report and look at the runway diagram, it’s no wonder they got confused.

You had made these 2 accidents in separate videos in the previous time. But it was nice to see both together at once again. And im your older lovely fan❤️😊

The screams of the pilots on the cvr were heart breaking.