Comair passengers blamed in crash

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Louisville Courier-Jorunal

An attorney representing the co-pilot of Comair Flight 5191 has claimed that passengers were partly to blame for their own deaths in the August 2006 crash in Lexington, though that claim won't be used in court.

William Johnson, an attorney for First Officer James Polehinke, the only survivor of the crash, which killed 49 people, made the claim in response to questions from a plaintiff's attorney about Polehinke's potential defenses in a federal lawsuit stemming from the incident.

The argument was that the 47 passengers should have known of dangerous conditions at Blue Grass Airport, including the need to improve runway conditions.

Johnson said last night that after researching the matter, he decided to withdraw that as a defense for Polehinke.

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In response to questions asking for an explanation of this possible defense, Johnson said that passengers "should have been aware of the dangerous conditions that existed" at the airport on the day of the crash, "in that there had been considerable media coverage about the necessity of improving runway conditions at the airport."

Read more: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AI...

---

Well that would've been a dumba** defense! The crew who wasn't paying attention and took off down an unlit runway were to blame as well as the FAA for an understaffed tower and the airport for not making their construction clearer to air crews.

On edit more extensive story on this: http://www.kentucky.com/211/story/297109.html

[babylonsister]

1. That is beyond the pale. Since when are uneducated passengers

supposed to tell a pilot what to do. Now they're dead, so they can't even defend themselves.

[TwilightGardener]

2. So...they're blaming people for showing up for their flight? That's a good one.

[ixion]

3. Huh? Excuse me?

"The argument was that the 47 passengers should have known of dangerous conditions at Blue Grass Airport, including the need to improve runway conditions."



Get real, dude. I can't believe he even said that.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. That is more cynical than I though was possible under the laws of physics

Complicit in their own deaths.

I don't know what to say. It's so outrageous that I can't even be outraged.

Good god. (And I say that as an atheist.)

--p!

[melody]

5. What's next? "Hey, dead guy, you should have known the surgeon sucked?"

This is astounding.

[Haole Girl]

6. Isn't the headline somewhat misleading?

It was the attorney, not Comair, playing around with a defense strategy.

But who cares about the facts, when it makes for a great headline, right?

[TwilightGardener]

9. "Comair " in the context of the headline is only used to identify the passengers--

Comair is not the subject of the headline.

[RamboLiberal]

13. Read the headline again - nothing said about Comair blaming passengers n/t

[enid602]

7. phone number

I think George Bush might want to get that attorney's phone number.

[kurth]

31. William E. Johnson

William E. Johnson
Firm: Johnson, Judy, True & Guarnieri, L.L.P.
Address: 326 West Main St
Frankfort, KY 40601-1887
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
213-479 (Telex)

http://pview.findlaw.com/view/2464436_1?noconfirm=0

[Webster Green]

8. This dude has a job waiting if Dana Perino bails out..

This is some sort of new low.

[karlrschneider]

10. It's what lawyers do. Sometimes the most bizarre conjecture imaginable can get traction

with a jury. But obviously he realized that one was a bit too much.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. It must be something in the water in the USA, that everybody blames someone else for SNAFUs. We've

witnessed it time and time again in the Bush Administration and it's filtering downward. You all know that the poor are to blame for being poor and now dead airline passengers are to blame for the crash that killed them!

[MadMaddie]

37. Exactly...this is * America....blame the victims of Katrina,

blame the Victims of a plane crash...

blame the Iraqi's for starving to death and dying of disieses that were at one time eliminated in their country....

oh yea blame the Intelegience agencies for getting it wrong before the lead up to the war....


And so it goes...

[Solly Mack]

12. He'll be working for Bush soon

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Remember when this was just satire?

"Shanna, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash. " - Airplane!

[Blue_Tires]

34. lol i was about to post that

[McCamy Taylor]

15. Karl Rove is to blame. They were doing "liquid terror" security updates so

pilots were not aware of changes in the runways was the way I heard it. However, I am sure that the feds will prevent any of that from coming out in court,

[Aviation Pro]

16. Ahem....

....

1. Every pilot is supposed to have an airport diagram in front of them when taxiing.
2. Every checklist, FCOM, FOM, flow, etc. at every Part 121 organization (airline) says that you should check the compass heading to ensure that your are taking off from the correct runway.

This liar, er, lawyer should go pound sand until his feet blister to a bloody stump.

[AngryOldDem]

17. I've heard of blaming the victim....

...but this is just bullshit. Even if the passengers knew of the problem at the airport, that still does not excuse the negligence that the pilots showed. I expect the pilots and air-traffic controllers to know of and know how to handle situations like this, and not fall asleep at the wheel.

At least the lawyer came to his senses and decided not to use it as a defense.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

18. Voters should have known Dumbyass was going to screw them over

There had been considerable media coverage of his AWOL, drunk riving, and cocaine abuse charges.

Maybe not by the mainstream media; but there was considerable coverage elsewhere.

[pattmarty]

19. Yeah, like maybe they shoulda been told when they got on the fucking plane!!!!!!

[karlrschneider]

20. Er, told what? I don't understand what you're saying...

?

[pattmarty]

23. I was being funny. How in the hell would/could they have known?

[karlrschneider]

25. Okay, sorry I was having a brainfart there

[CreekDog]

21. Let me get this straight: the passengers were supposed to know, but not the co-pilot?

No kidding they will not be using that as a defense!

[Yael]

22. So this means the passengers get the right to hijack the plane and demand that they change course?

I can't believe that this even came up.

No wonder people hate lawyers.

[customerserviceguy]

24. And attorneys wonder

why they get no respect...

[thunder rising]

26. Since only the cockpit (aboard a given comm flight) is privy to runway assignment,

the passengers could not have a clue.

Since the commercial airlines have implemented their "It's our skies" policy nobody inside the plane could have been listening for the runway assignment, read the runway markers and called attention to the problem.

The cattle on commercial airlines have no say about living or dying, just shut up.

[NikolaC]

27. Disgusting

Blame the victims, especially when they cannot defend themselves .

[Danger Mouse]

28. It takes a special breed of rotten scumbag to come up with something that vile.

[cboy4]

29. Yea, because I always research the saftey issues

concerning every airport I fly into.

Not to mention, I ask to inspect the maintenance and safety record of every aircraft I fly on.

This is some of the most unreal bullshit I've ever read.

[kurth]

30. Disgusting waste of oxygen

Goddamn asshole.

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. That is exactly the kind of response that victims are getting from the guilty.

I was told that I should have questioned my doctor when he prescribed the wrong medication. Calling every day and complaining of pain wasn't enough, apparently. I should have had the knowledge to know before hand where he went wrong and confronted him as if I were a knowledgeable doctor, myself.

[Heywood J]

33. So he's arguing the passengers should have stormed the cockpit

and thrown him and the other guy out? Isn't that advocating air piracy, the last time I checked?

Realistically, even if he had a leg to suggest this, the passengers have no way to get to the cockpit now. That's like blaming someone for not being able to jump through a metal wall.

[Blue_Tires]

35. fucking punk bastard lawyer n/t

[TankLV]

36. That'll teach 'em to leave their trays and seatbacks down!

not to mention their cell phones and laptops not comletely turned off...!

selfish untrainied passengers will get ya every time...

[Retrograde]

38. One way this *might* be plausible

I was once on a small puddle-jumper that was only partially full. Before take-off, the flight attendant went through the plane and asked certain people to move to balance the load better. Now, IF that had been the case AND the passengers got up and all packed themselves in to one section MAYBE the lawyer'd have a case. But that's really grabbing at straws.

The final decision is up to the pilot, which is why he/she gets the big bucks to fly the plane.