City leaders, family members and more gathered Thursday to mark the 20th anniversary of the deadly Comair Flight 5191 plane crash at Blue Grass Airport.
The crash killed 49 people, including all 47 passengers and two of the three crew members.
Thursday's event, held at a memorial located on the grounds of the University of Kentucky Arboretum, included tributes to loved ones lost in the disaster.
According to investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, the likely cause of the crash was the pilots ignoring indicators they were on the wrong runway. They did not confirm their position before attempting to take off, an investigation found.
The pilot mistakenly took off on the wrong runway, which was unlit, shorter than the intended runway and not fit for commercial use. The plane overran and crashed before taking flight.
Gerry van der Meer was among those who helped coordinate relief efforts in the aftermath. He’s now co-commissioner of the 5191 Memorial Committee and hosted this week's anniversary service.
“We became connected to the lives of those on the flight. We may not have personally known someone who perished on the crash, but I often have heard, and in the years to come, of others who intimately knew someone on the flight,” he said.
City leaders and other well-wishers in attendance left flowers at the base of the nearby memorial statue. It depicts 49 doves in flight above a marble ring, which has the names of the victims inscribed.
“Some of them have never been able to come to the memorial to look at it and feel what it meant, and they came today. And it's one more step for them to, you know, go into the future without their loved one,” Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said.
Sue Byrd is the mother of victim Brian Byrd. He was on the flight with his girlfriend, Judy Rains.
“Every one of them had someone who would have given anything to have had one more conversation, one more hug, one more ordinary day. That is why I don't want Flight 5191 to be remembered only as an aviation tragedy. I want it remembered as 49 human stories,” she said at the service.
She spoke alongside Matthew Snoddy, whose father, Timothy, was also on the flight.
“His life was a thread. The thread, when the view is broadened, is part of what we often call a tapestry, filled with tens, hundreds, and even thousands of other threads,” he said. “The tapestry is a metaphor for community. It's not a perfect metaphor, though, because tapestries are all perfect with right angles, perfect weaving. The reality of community is odd angles, different directions, unexpected connections, threads of all shapes and sizes, as well as other communities that also have threads intersecting ours, and many others.”
The Federal Aviation Administration now requires pilots to confirm their position before getting on the runway and before taking off. The National Transportation Safety Board also issued a number of recommendations to help air traffic controllers avoid fatigue.
