Another Plane Tried to Use Wrong Ky. Runway

A single-engine plane tried to take off from the wrong runway less than three months after a deadly crash in which a jet mistakenly took off on the same strip, the Federal Aviation Administration told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The pilot and the two air traffic controllers on duty at the time did not notify airport officials about the Nov. 9 incident, said Blue Grass Airport spokesman Brian Ellestad. The officials did not find out about the incident until media inquiries Wednesday.

"We are normally notified in a situation like this," he said. "We are working with the parties to see why we weren't informed."

The private 1976 Piper Saratoga accidentally turned onto the secondary runway as it prepared for a midnight flight, though it had been cleared to take off from the main strip, said Laura Brown, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

One of two air traffic controllers on duty alerted the pilot, and the plane safely took off the correct runway, Brown said.

The secondary runway was reopened this month for daytime use by only small aircraft. It was shut down immediately after Comair Flight 5191 crashed in the pre-dawn darkness on Aug. 27 after the pilots took off from a 3,500-foot runway instead of the 7,000-foot main runway. Forty-nine of the 50 people aboard were killed.

A week before that crash, a repaving project had changed the taxi route leading to the main runway.

Brown would not speculate on why the pilot of the single-engine plane went to the wrong runway. The FAA is not investigating, she said.

"We've been working with the airport to make sure the signs and markings are clear" in that area," she said.

Immediately after the crash, some officials, including Gov. Ernie Fletcher, said the shorter runway should be closed permanently.

Airport officials and others said it is vital to general aviation traffic. Airport plans call for moving the shorter runway slightly and lengthening it to 5,000 feet.

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