Comair Flight 5191
aviation accident
Comair Flight 5191 was a scheduled United States domestic passenger flight from Lexington, Kentucky, to Atlanta, Georgia. On the morning of August 27, 2006, at around 06:07 EDT (10:07 UTC), the Bombardier CRJ100 crashed while attempting to take off from Blue Grass Airport in Fayette County, Kentucky, four miles (six kilometres; three nautical miles) west of the central business district of the city of Lexington.
The aircraft was assigned the airport's Runway 22 for the takeoff but used Runway 26 instead. Runway 26 was too short for a safe takeoff, causing the aircraft to overrun the end of the runway before it could become airborne. It crashed just past the end of the runway, killing all 47 passengers and 2 of the 3 crew members. It was the second-deadliest accident involving the CRJ100/200 after China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210, which had crashed two years earlier and claimed 55 lives.
The first officer, James Polehinke, was the pilot flying at the time of the accident and was the sole survivor. Captain Jeffrey Clay was the one who had primary responsibility for taxiing to the wrong runway. In the National Transportation Safety Board's report on the crash, investigators concluded that the likely cause of the crash was pilot error.
Flight details
The flight was marketed under the Delta Air Lines brand as Delta Connection Flight 5191 (DL5191) and was operated by Comair as Flight 5191.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Comair Flight 5191” is aviation accident. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Comair, Flight and aviation, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “aviation accident” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1184775. Authority coordinates are 38.038, -84.615. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2006.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Comair Flight 5191”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Comair Flight 5191 primary sources, Comair Flight 5191 archive and Comair research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Comair Flight 5191”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Comair Flight 5191” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.