Did the sleep deprivation of the the lone air traffic controller have anything to do with the Comair crash? A federal investigator said the controller on duty the morning Comair Flight 5191 crashed had only two hours of sleep before starting work on the overnight shift.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Debbie Hersman said the controller had only nine hours off between work shifts on Saturday. That was just enough to meet federal rules, which require a minimum of eight hours off between shifts, Hersman said.
"He advised our team that he got approximately two hours of sleep," Hersman said on Wednesday.
The commuter jet crashed on Sunday morning, in the final hours of the controller's shift, while trying to take off from Blue Grass Airport.
Federal officials have been looking for explanations why Flight 5191 mistakenly tried to take off from a runway that was too short, crashing in a nearby field and killing 49 of 50 people on board.
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