Hundreds gather to honor Kentucky crash victims
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Candles glowed throughout Rupp Arena Sunday evening in remembrance of 49 people killed when a commercial jet crashed after trying to take off from the wrong runway.
Eva Ayer was among the hundreds of people who gathered for the memorial two weeks after Comair Flight 5191 crashed near Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport.
“Everyone has really come together,” said Ayer, whose co-worker was one of the victims of the crash.
Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher and pop star Brian Littrell helped lead the memorial attended by several of the victims’ families and friends.
“It reminds us of the uncertainty of life,” Fletcher said. “Tragedy stopped them short of their dreams and aspirations … loved ones felt a loss that we can’t explain or describe.”
Two local choirs led those gathered in singing “My Old Kentucky Home” and “Amazing Grace.” Littrell, a former member of the Backstreet Boys, sang his own song, “Gone Without Goodbye,” about people who have lost loved ones in a tragedy.
The Aug. 27 regional jet crash was the worst American plane disaster in nearly five years. Only one person survived the crash, the plane’s co-pilot, James Polehinke.
Isaac said at the memorial that she has been impressed with how the city has come together to help the victims’ families.
“We have become a city, not with different classes, but only class,” she said. “As commendable a quality as this is, we can take no satisfaction from it, for we crave the thought of knowing that we’ve helped those whose grief seems unbearable.”
Federal investigators said the flight’s captain, Jeffrey Clay, taxied the plane onto the wrong, too-short runway at Blue Grass Airport before Polehinke took over and attempted to get it airborne.
The plane crashed and caught fire in a nearby field. Polehinke was pulled to safety from the broken cockpit, but everyone else aboard the plane died in the crash and ensuing fire.
Polehinke is now off a ventilator but could be hospitalized for several more weeks with facial and spine fractures, a broken leg, foot and hand, three broken ribs, a broken breastbone and a collapsed lung.
Investigators are looking into airport construction and staffing at the control tower, among other things, as possible contributing factors to the crash.