>> The tragic news this morning that just after 6:00, a Comair flight 5191 was leaving from Bluegrass Airport towards Atlanta.

And apparently just moments after taking off crashed.

>> Sources tell us.

Also, a source has confirmed for NBC that the plane took off on runway 826.

This is the shorter runway at Bluegrass Airport.

>> We have several that are dead.

>> Did take one individual off the airplane.

He's at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.

I believe he's in surgery now, but the remaining 49 passengers or crew are fatalities.

>> He said they have recovered 33 bodies and they've taken them to Frankfort.

The autopsies have begun.

>> There was one survivor.

>> Pulled from the cockpit.

>> Section of that aircraft.

>> On Jim Polehinke.

As you said, he was the first officer of the ill fated flight 5191.

They tell us that he is still in surgery, still in critical condition.

But that's all that they would say.

>> I hope he's proud of me.

I hope he's proud of how I raised our children.

That's that's the hard part is that they missed out.

They missed out on their dad, and he would have loved to see how they grew up.

>> It was a life changing.

>> And with each development, it just got worse.

>> Into the studio walks my wife and my daughter.

[MUSIC] Christina, and they walked in to make sure I was okay.

And when I saw them.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] I realized we could have been on that plane.

>> And I saw this name, Brian Bird.

And I'm like, I, I went to high school with a guy named Brian Bird as more stuff starts coming out.

Sure enough, it was Brian Bird from Richmond, Kentucky.

He was on that flight with his fiancee, Judy.

They were traveling to the Caribbean to get married.

And so that's the first time I cried about 51, 91.

>> The little girl that was, I believe, flying somewhere to buy a horse was the suitcase that I stepped over that night with all of her riding gear in it, and I never seen her face until that morning.

And Speedway on limestone on in front of a newspaper.

[MUSIC] So it was just hits after hits after hits like that over and over, every day.

>> Alert three West side of the runway.

It was a region which had taken off alert.

>> Three West side of runway.

Yeah.

>> West side of the airport.

Just off the approaching runway.

>> Eight off approach on runway eight, runway eight.

>> Off the approaching runway eight.

It was taken off two two.

>> Off the approaching runway eight.

>> Yeah, well, he's off the west side of the runway.

>> West side of the runway.

Alrighty.

>> All units, check.

Reference a possible plane crash near the Keeneland Gate at Versailles.

The man o war versus a man o war.

>> We got a lot of smoke out here.

>> Ken.

Four fire departments are out.

>> To look for the gravel road, come up a gravel road, and just literally have four wheels through the field to get to it.

>> There's a farm entrance that was just for tractors that you could tell that would kind of take you up into the general direction where that faint glow was coming from, took my cruiser and started kind of off road up through this farm field.

Once I kind of broke out of this tall Kentucky grass, I located what was 5191 in the field.

>> I got the phone call that morning at 6:00 from dispatch.

[MUSIC] I went straight into the 911 center.

>> Hi, this is Sheila with the Lexington Fire Department.

We have activated our Burke response for mass casualty at the airport with the plane down with the said.

There have been 47 people on board.

>> And you're from the fire department.

Lexington fire?

Yes, ma'am.

My name is Pam.

This is for real.

This isn't a train accident, right?

Ma'am, this is Pam Dixon from the Lexington Fire Department.

This is a real incident.

>> You think a small plane, even one of those experimental type things.

>> It was Mike Taylor who was our long time assignment manager, and he sounded frantic and said, how soon can you get to the station?

>> Allen.

Let's get some crews.

Start back as far as we can toward the airport.

We need to start walking along the crash path.

It's pretty easy to define with the fire that's been there.

We need to start looking for people that may have come out of the plane before it came to rest.

Okay, it's pretty chaotic at this point.

I'm unable to locate any other patients.

We'll keep looking.

>> Master control operator noticed that in the newsroom the scanners were going crazy, and there was a lot of chatter and traffic.

>> Got out the door.

>> I called.

>> Wtvc on the slim chance that someone would be in our newsroom, and someone answered the phone.

And it was Jason Stephens, our weekday morning producer.

>> He had stopped in the newsroom to check in on assignments to check his email.

And that's what was so strange about it, is that he never should have been there.

>> There is something going on at the airport, what's going on out there?

And she said, well, a plane crashed.

I said, what?

She said, A plane crashed.

I said, a little plane or a big plane.

She goes, well, I think it's a big plane.

She goes, are you going to go to that?

I said, I'll be on my way.

And that's how that day started.

628 I pulled up the hill there on that farm.

>> This is airport fire.

[MUSIC] You guys got X all the way out.

>> We got one.

How many are you going to need?

>> Well, that whole Wright Breathitt.

We've got a call from here.

They got 47 souls on board, so 47.

[MUSIC] >> They had no idea what size aircraft it was.

[MUSIC] They ran up the hill.

It was waist high grass.

They figured somebody could have been hurt.

So they took the fire extinguishers and the little medical kits, first aid kits from their cruisers.

[MUSIC] >> Due to the heat from the plane crash, you could tell it's melted down all the vegetation.

And that's part of the first time that my car could break through the tall grass and immediately just be exposed to this, this scene of an airplane down in the middle of one of our farm fields.

>> Probably look like something that wasn't even real.

I'm guessing.

>> It looked like a movie.

>> You know, you remember stuff like that really well, I was watching Dora the Explorer with my son, who was, I guess maybe three or so at the time.

[MUSIC] And my sister called.

>> One of my dad's really good friends had called my cell phone and for him to call me, it'd be 8 a.m.

on a Sunday or so.

Certainly was was odd.

>> The strange thing is, is she had actually called me by accident while she was at the airport.

So I called back a few minutes later and she answered.

She said, Julie, I'm so sorry.

I must have butt dialed you.

I'm going through security right now with Bobby.

She's like, we're getting ready to head on out.

And I said, okay, well be safe, I love you.

She's like, I love you too.

As soon as I get there, I'll call you.

>> My husband answered my phone and talked to her, and so he came down to the hotel restaurant and he was crying when he walked down and and just said, your dad's plane has crashed and we don't know anymore.

>> I was actually awoke by somebody that was working at the hospital, and they told me what had happened and said that they were scared.

[MUSIC] They didn't know what to do because they were a nurse.

They were going to have to stay after.

And they hung up because the supervisor was coming out.

And I sat there momentarily and realized that my dad actually had business out of town and started going through how to get Ahold of him, to figure out where he was at.

>> His aunt had called me and she goes, Anita.

She goes, what flight was Greg on?

And I said, five one, nine one.

And she goes, okay.

She goes, I don't want to worry you.

But there was something that happened at the airport.

I'll call you back.

And she hung up and I remember being angry again.

I'm like, why would somebody call me and say that?

And I flipped the news on and I saw, I mean, you know, it was like in the movies, you know, there it is, everything scrolling across, you know, the number of the flight, the what, the pictures of the emergency vehicles.

And I just, I just stood there and it was, you know, like every bit of air just sucked out of the room.

>> A few hours later, I got a phone call.

[MUSIC] That her plane had crashed.

>> And my sister called.

And I remember her basically just calling in and saying something along the lines of that.

That was dad's plane, and I hadn't seen the news.

I knew I knew nothing.

I actually, to be completely honest, I didn't even know he was traveling that day.

I knew it was coming up.

[MUSIC] And so yeah, it was one of those things where, you know, in the movies where you have the, the Hitchcock thing, you know, where they pull back and like, just, just like, what in the world is happening?

And we didn't know anything.

But the first thing was to go to the airport.

[MUSIC] >> And it was intense.

It was an intense scene.

At this point.

I needed to get help to me, and I was trying frantically on the radio to give landmarks, kind of let them know where I'm at.

>> I got to look for the gravel road, come up a gravel road, and just literally you're gonna have four wheels through the field to get to.

It would have Lexington fire start any additional bus truck they got.

There's no way that the big trucks would be able to get back here.

>> I need everybody that's coming out this way.

It's confirmed.

This is a real plane.

It's a big one and it's down.

So once I felt like I could get people coming to me, I just started to walk around the crash site and see if I could find anybody that, you know, I could render aid to.

I remember walking around the scene and.

Stepping over what was luggage that was broken open in every piece of luggage that you stepped over.

You got a quick snapshot of that person's life.

[MUSIC] One of them was what appeared to be a small little kids.

[MUSIC] Piece of luggage based on the clothing.

I think there were some horse riding boots in it.

>> So I walked in and there was not a lot that you could see because that foam, they had sprayed so much foam and it, you know, it went 50 or 100 yards back from the where the plane entered that field, and especially around what was left of the plane, you, you could see the top of the plane.

And most of the top of that plane had already burnt off or had been compromised from all the trees going into the fuselage.

[MUSIC] >> Obviously, there was some people that were ejected from the plane.

[MUSIC] And as I worked my way through the debris field, I tried to get close enough to see if I could actually get up into the side of the plane.

>> Because there were no wings, the wings were gone.

And that cylinder, which was always left of that aircraft, I think the tail was separated to it, had skidded and then turned and slammed up against an old Civil War fence, of all things, that the edge of that.

And then the trees were down and they didn't burn all the way off.

So it was just an odd place for, you know, to see an airplane.

>> At that point, I started working my way towards the front of the plane, trying to get away from the heat.

It was just too hot to even get close to that particular section of it.

And once I made my way around the front, you could tell that the front has taken a significant impact hitting the trees, coming through the field until it came to a rest.

>> At the top was burnt off.

So if you walked up to it once the foam dissipated, it was about four feet high from the ground, the fuselage.

But you could look in there and see everything from the front to the back.

>> The nose cone was pulled off of it.

Everything was exposed in the front, and that's when I could see that there was actually later on, determined to be obviously a pilot that was pushed up in his seat, hanging in the wreckage.

I was trying to figure out how to get up in there and start trying to get him out of his harness, and that's when Blue Grass Airport officer, John Salley, he came back and he was hearing my radio traffic on some of the landmarks and with him working with him, working that particular area, he knew exactly where I was.

So he was able to make his way up the trail and find me.

So at that point, him and I basically started working together to get Polehinke out of the wreckage, get him unbuckled from his harness, and kind of remove him from the wreckage.

>> I just pulled the pilot out of the front.

He's seriously injured.

>> What people didn't understand was all along the way, from the minute they skidded up off the ground in that field, the left wing was sheared off in a row of trees, and then the airplane continued on after hitting the ground.

And they were they were pulling small trees out of the ground, just one after the other.

Those because that plane was on full throttle and had a lot of momentum, momentum.

When that thing was still careening, there were tree limbs and stuff from some of the larger trees that were actually getting into the interior of the aircraft, smashing into it, pushing people, you know, pushing the seats around.

A lot of those people that were in the plane, they were in the rear center section of the plane, and they were just they weren't in seats.

>> It was very violent.

I mean, it ran an airplane that's made out of aluminum, if you will, or very flexible metal through trees at a high rate of speed for a significant amount of distance.

It's just like a knife cutting right through.

>> I was dating a Lexington police detective and crime scene investigator at the time, and it was a Sunday morning, and he was actually covering a shift for someone that day.

And I was making coffee, and he made the phone call to see if anything was going on that he needed to go straight to.

And as soon as he called in and identified himself, his eyes kind of went like this.

And then he grabbed a piece of paper and pencil.

And then I stopped and looked.

And then he said, what kind?

And then he hung up and looked at me and said, we're both working today.

There's been a crash at Bluegrass Airport.

>> So it was a Sunday morning, so there was not, you know, anybody in the newsroom at the time.

So I turned on the lights, and I remember going into my office and, you know, and I could hear that there was a lot going on in the scanner and just kind of thinking like, oh my gosh, what, you know, what do I do now?

I mean, I'd only been at the station two, two weeks, you know, had gotten the opportunity to meet so many people.

But as you, you know, start a new job like you, you meet everybody, but then you're not necessarily completely clear on what everybody does and, and stuff.

And so Sam Dick was the first person that I called that morning.

>> I get chills thinking about it right now.

He said in one sentence, Sam, we think there's been a plane crash.

[MUSIC] You need to come in.

That's all he said.

That was it.

Very flat.

>> Lined and matter of fact and short.

There's been a plane crash at the airport.

[MUSIC] We think it's commercial.

>> Run into the station.

By that time it's seven ish.

There's only a few people in the newsroom.

Things are starting to pick up a little bit, but there's only a few people on Roberts there, and I'm standing at my desk for about five minutes, not really knowing what to do because I have no idea what's going on.

I know I have no idea what's happened, and Robert says to me, you need to get on the air.

>> A number of them are simply standing on the road in the middle of all of this.

We do see two policemen walking down this this hill we've been alluding to all morning.

Another fire truck is making its way up the hill.

>> I called back in to Wtvc and right as I was approaching man O'war and Harrodsburg Road, the producer who was at the station said they just pulled the copilot out of the plane minutes ago.

So that's how close I was.

So when I made that left hand turn onto Versailles Road, as I said, there were still lights and sirens flooding up the hill, and I parked across the street at the Thoroughbred Club.

>> When we first arrived, within 20 minutes or so after this crash, flurry of activity with emergency response vehicles out here and now, you've got your steady flow of traffic coming inbound, outbound for sales on the outer lane.

>> It was frantic on the scanners and I heard someone say, we need body bags.

And, you know, I kind of cocked my head and the guy said, well, how like a couple?

Guy said, dozens.

And that just it it like all of a sudden I thought, okay, wait a minute.

Did he just say dozens?

>> So I came in, I looked at the radar.

I knew in about 30s there was no way any weather impacted this, because there was a little passing shower.

>> Around six, ten or so.

You had a little bit of activity, as you can see here, radar updates that will change that history a bit.

>> Out of the airport.

And keep in mind, I had, ironically, some experience because I was working in Charlotte over 4th of July weekend in 1994 when the US air DC nine crashed there at Charlotte Douglas.

[MUSIC] >> The hospital staff, nurses and doctors were told to stand down.

And when we got that word into the newsroom, a chill went down.

Me?

It did.

Right now, just talking about it and the enormity of the situation that there was nobody to work on.

>> I rushed to the station and was actually maybe like the third reporter there.

We had Chris Lupien and Heather Higdon, who always did the morning shift on the weekends, and I know they had dispatched Chris Lupien out to the airport that morning.

>> Go up there, and they're obviously working on the scene up there in that area.

We haven't been able to get up there, but the crash site is somewhere behind those trees behind me.

>> But I knew that it was inevitable that that was going to be me in just minutes.

And so they sent me to the airport, where I just remember chaos.

I mean, I remember lots of families coming in frantic.

Obviously.

I remember lots of emergency vehicles.

I remember the news crews.

I remember very little information being given out.

>> But yes, this is we are right outside of the bluegrass airport terminal.

And this has been the scene all morning long.

You can see that police officers and sheriff's deputies are basically keeping people a safe distance from the terminal.

Now, when this everything went down this morning, they basically evacuated the entire building.

There were other planes scheduled to go off around, leave the airport.

Around 640 people I talked to on the scene were basically forced out of the airport.

>> And there's so much going on because you're not going to get a lot of information initially about what happened, and you can't get anywhere close to the crash site really.

They had for sale road pretty much blocked, and the the access road that went up to where the plane had actually crashed was all blocked off.

So one of my first assignments was just waiting for media updates.

>> Information starts to trickle in and I use the word trickle because I really feel like that was that early in the story.

Things were just starting to get out.

[MUSIC] Bill let's go to excuse me, we're going to go to the news conference right now, live from near the airport and listen in right now.

>> And this is going to be Mike manager of the airport.

>> I'm Michael Gobb, I'm the executive director of Lexington's Bluegrass Airport.

Have some brief information available at this time.

Approximately 6 a.m.

this morning, a Delta flight departed Lexington bound for Atlanta flight number 519146.

Passengers on board three crew, one crew member in a jump seat.

The aircraft type was a CRJ 200, typically holds 50 passengers.

That aircraft experienced some difficulty on on departure.

We're not sure what that difficulty was.

NTSB is en route with a full go team, so right now we focused on the initial response that all went went very well.

The coordination cooperation here between the airport, the the city and the state has been has been wonderful.

>> Well, sir, we we need to ask you about the status of the roughly 50 people on that plane.

>> We do know we have confirmed that there are fatalities.

We're not sure the exact numbers at this point.

>> Are basically playing traffic cop of just.

[MUSIC] We would go from person once all the live shots were up.

It was from person to person to person.

No scripts, nothing, no scripts, and just kind of by the seat of our pants.

[MUSIC] >> Utter chaos.

>> Utter chaos.

>> Our Jerry Sander talked with the coroner here in Fayette County, Gary Jen a little earlier this morning, and we're going to look at that interview, what he saw and what that flight, what the area looks like right now.

[MUSIC] >> Three with me is Gary Ginn, the coroner for this county.

Mr.

Ginn I should have asked you before, but describe the site from your standpoint there.

>> Well this was a hot fire.

[MUSIC] We have several that are dead.

This is a a scene that's not going to go anywhere.

We're we're waiting on a lot of people to get here, a lot of people to arrive before before anyone's moved.

I've put together chaplains.

>> You realize that the enormity of the story is growing by the minute.

And more and more people are are it's confirmed, are dead.

>> I can confirm that the rescue operations have ceased.

We do have one survivor.

>> And it gets worse.

It gets worse.

>> And also, all of the family members that are currently at the airport are being taken to the Campbell House.

So if you have someone that may have been on that flight, instead of going to the airport, you may want to go to the Campbell House off of Broadway.

>> Got a call from the front desk clerk a little bit before eight, and he says, if you've been watching the news, Mr.

Van der Meer and I went, no, I haven't.

I haven't turned the TV on.

He says.

There's been a terrible plane crash.

I said, oh my gosh.

And we got a call from Comair asking if we had the availability to take families of those who had perished, and she told me of the crash and that they were going to be bringing in family members.

And I knew we had a busy midweek.

And I said, I want you to know something.

I'm going to make it happen.

I don't want you to call anybody else.

We'll go ahead and and help you and accommodate everybody that we can.

>> So there were people coming in and we really didn't know you were hoping.

You were hoping that there were some survivors because they they were talking about the hospitals getting ready to take people in.

And, and so there was like an 800 number to call.

>> Brought us into the conference room upstairs.

And we just kind of sat there.

No one really came in and talked to us.

We didn't find any information out there at that point.

Maybe, maybe we were there a half hour and then they said, everybody's going to the Campbell House.

>> Grief is obvious even from a distance.

Family members of crash victims were taken to the Campbell House, Crowne Plaza in.

>> And we didn't know the extent of things then.

So, you know, we're like, oh, where are they?

You know, are they fine or are they dead?

Or are they, you know, badly injured?

You know, what exactly are we going to be dealing with?

>> But I was still very lost and did not know what to do, did not know what to say, did not know how to react.

[MUSIC] I knew we were in Lexington.

We were at the airport.

And then we went to the Campbell house to be told by Delta officials, actually what happened.

And ALS, I could think was, this is not my place to mourn.

This wasn't my place to do anything other than get out.

I wanted to be with my family at that very moment.

>> We had people calling the 800 number for information, and then I had his cell phone.

I, I kept calling his cell phone over and over.

I mean, I, I probably called it 100, 200 times.

I just, it was over and over and hoping, hoping that he would answer.

You know.

>> General manager Jerry van der Meer says the community has offered its help.

>> You know, we're part of a community that wants to help.

And I think what's really neat is we're just part of it.

The city, everybody from the Salvation Army to the Red cross have come in to to be here to help families.

>> Like, I don't know how much everybody knew at the time, but we all went to the airport.

[MUSIC] I understandably, I think they kind of wanted us out of the airport and sort of like, you know, once kind of everything was back in, you know, you know, flights, you know, planes started flying again.

And we, we went to the Campbell House.

>> So we sat in the back of my sister in law's van and they had the news on.

And I remember hearing that there was, you know, one survivor while we were on that ride and, and just praying that it was my dad.

But truly in my heart, I knew it wasn't him.

>> I actually knew her brother first.

I worked with him at galls.

He called me to let me know what had happened and I just was in disbelief.

I literally just spoke to her.

I had just seen her at a barbecue.

I just talked to her going through security, and then the next phone call was hearing that the plane had crashed and I just did not even believe it.

I sat up in bed.

I looked at my husband and was shocked, turned on the news.

I just couldn't understand.

I couldn't wrap my head around it.

How could that happen?

Why did it happen?

>> Many of us were standing in the back.

A lot of people were sitting down at the tables and.

Lots of people, they're just mad, crying.

Nobody's saying anything.

Not a really good, good situation.

Probably wasn't handled very well.

[MUSIC] Unprecedented to though.

So but then someone did finally come in and.

>> I got there and I met with the president of Comair and talked to him for a few moments.

And he, he said, we're about to tell the family that there were no survivors.

And all of a sudden, this 25 year old kid walks into the front of the room and I was expecting the president to come there, who had just been speaking with, to come in and do this.

And but this kid walks in, he announced who he was, and he said, I've just got a message from the scene and there are no survivors.

And he turned around and left and the room exploded.

People started flipping chairs and tables and screaming, and.

>> In the room.

Just pretty much erupted.

>> You know, finally just were able to say, there's a single survivor and he's, you know, a member of the crew.

And that was the, the ultimate just like that's where we knew what we were dealing with.

It's like, this is, you know, this is bad.

>> So tell me about that.

Me.

>> I mean, it was I don't think we were expecting, you know, great news, but it was just like a big room.

And I'll say when they, you know, when they kind of just dropped the I mean, they didn't beat around the bush.

There's no, you know, just kind of like, here's, here's the deal.

I mean, there were some people that hit the floor.

I mean, it's different people deal with that sort of thing in very different ways.

But it was a pretty raw, pretty raw thing to be there for.

>> Very poorly handled.

Totally.

They didn't bring us one on one.

They didn't meet with us one on one.

And we're I'm in shock as being a resident of Lexington.

>> And I freaked out internally.

And I looked at Gerald and I said, Gerald, we got to get some help.

You know, this is terrible.

All we could do is apologize because it wasn't our responsibility to do that.

And all of a sudden it clicked.

And I said, well, we got to get rooms for everybody.

We've got to get them in individual rooms.

So I went to the front desk, spoke to Gerry, and I said, I'll bring keys.

And so he walked in and started handing out keys.

And the family slowly started to go to their individual rooms.

And then everything calmed down.

>> And as T G has done a super job of showing us on the map earlier, there's a long runway and there's a shorter runway.

And what Bob or the aviation expert was, CBS is saying, is that runway right there near the top of your screen, going straight across?

Not the long one is the 3500, 3400 foot long runway, and that is the one, according to CBS news, that this pilot mistakenly took.

>> I've done some flight training at Bluegrass Airport.

Then when I was doing mornings, that was back when Officer Don was actually flying the little Cessna 152 and doing air traffic for WB.

Okay, so what I would do, I would work the morning show and then in the afternoon I would go out and I would fly with him.

When I was a kid, I would go even though there wasn't that much traffic, my father would take me out to the end of the runway and I would just watch the planes come in.

The two jobs that I said I always wanted if I was not a meteorologist on television, was to be a pilot.

My parents were afraid of flying, so they dissuaded me.

But the ironic part, and this is where it all ties in, was a crash investigator for the NTSB.

>> He had some experience in and knowledge of aviation, and he joined me and Barbara pretty early on.

And that was big.

>> Because at a time when we didn't, especially early on, have a lot of information, you could throw it over to t g there at the weather desk, and he could talk and fill time, but also add to the content.

>> And he's the one that kind of connected the dots to like, I think this plane took off from the wrong runway.

>> And I remember thinking something's not right because it hadn't come out that it had taken off from the wrong runway.

But I remember thinking that clearly it had to be that because physics just don't add up.

Knowing what I know about how this should have occurred and how deep down the runway they should be before they lift off, rotate and head on their way.

Another thing that has come into question that will be investigated, obviously, you can see the darker paving, and you see a stripe on either side of the main runway.

And I'll never forget they were overtalking and I put my arms up and I said, wait a minute, wait a minute.

What happened one week ago?

And they're like, what?

Two things?

One, they repaved the runway.

But what people forget is two, they change the configuration of the taxiways.

Runway two two here is now not all the way at the end, close to Versailles Road.

It has been moved down.

[MUSIC] So you get a safety buffer zone at the end of the runway.

And then the main two two runway starts just off of this taxiway, which is pointed toward the top of your screen here.

And that additional taxiway, which used to take all the commercial and general aviation flights out to the end of runway two two, that is now closed.

So your main access off of the taxiway is to really cross the end of runway two six and then head down.

I believe this is Alpha five.

>> We had just.

>> Covered the reopening of the airport.

[MUSIC] Everything changed.

Markings, signage, painting the runways, and a few days later, this happens.

You'll never convince me that didn't play some percentage of responsibility in this.

>> A repaving project just one week before the crash changed the taxi routes to the runways.

The pilots did not have updated maps of the airport.

Go ahead.

>> Do your construction.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] Don't provide the information that is needed to be provided.

Don't give them a single.

Don't give them a map.

That's correct.

Don't give them a single one of their notams.

Don't give them an ounce of information about the airport itself.

That's okay, because you don't have any responsibility either.

>> Investigators acknowledge the pilots did not have up to date information on taxi and runway changes at Bluegrass Airport because of construction, but concluded that was not a factor in the accident.

>> It didn't take long for.

>> All of us to realize that no matter how many people we interviewed, how many documents, documents we reviewed, no matter how much evidence that we collected the accident would offer up no easy explanations for us, no simple solutions.

>> If I can interrupt for just a second.

Airport sources are confirming for.

>> NBC news that the airplane did indeed take off from the wrong runway.

As we here at Lex 18 have been telling you since about 9:00 this morning.

The lights were on on the correct runway.

They are not sure about the lights on the wrong runway, the shorter runway.

They're not sure at this point if the tower told the pilot or if the pilot was confused.

>> We had a tip from someone very close to our newsroom who was involved in the investigation, and I could hear in between live shots in my ear what was going on back at the station, and they said the plane took off from the wrong runway.

And we're like, there's there's two.

How does how does that happen.

>> When producers gave me that bit of information, I didn't want to go with it.

That was such a huge accusation to begin with.

I wanted to know the source.

I didn't want someone just to say, even though it was my superior here, to just say, I know the source and it's reliable.

I wanted to know.

And then when I learned the source and I got his confirmation, my heart just sank.

>> It's Officer Don, right?

>> I don't know if that's public knowledge or if he wants it to be.

>> The pilots they notice.

Weird.

No lights in the voice recording.

>> Is weird with no lights.

>> If they would have been working for my dad out in the the video game floor, or even the concession.

My dad taught people to pay attention to the arcade machines.

If there's no lights on, check it.

Find out what's going on.

You know something's wrong.

Sounding alarm.

We should have arcade games on, or an out of order sign on it so that we know that this isn't to be used.

So if they would have been the pilots working or the concession working for my dad, instead of saying weird, no lights, they would have stopped.

They would have stopped what they were doing to figure out why are there no lights?

>> Because it was preventable.

That's the biggest thing.

And and it still is.

It still angers you, but.

>> Got there a little late.

They actually got on the wrong plane at first and got off and got on and then chit chat about a bunch of stuff and, you know, rode down the wrong runway.

And so yeah, it was just like, what?

You know, you know, I guess if even one of those, you know, one of the things had gone differently, it wouldn't have happened.

>> But those words just don't belong together.

[MUSIC] Like it's just not something we say as journalists that a plane took off from the wrong runway.

Like we didn't understand, like, how could that happen?

How could that happen?

>> It was dark.

[MUSIC] I, I was so mad.

We were so we were so angry because we just didn't understand how that possibly how the heck that happened.

Like it just seems impossible.

[MUSIC] It seems like impossible.

And then they were so close to making it like, you know, I a few more feet, 20ft.

I don't even know what it was that they just needed a little more.

[MUSIC] >> In the end, it didn't really matter.

[MUSIC] And no, no information, no new information, no excuses.

We're going to bring our dad back.

So for, you know, in a way, you just kind of don't, it's just all noise because it really didn't make any difference.

>> Lois Turner's husband, Larry, died on that plane.

>> I don't I don't feel any ill will towards Jim Polehinke.

I, I still cannot believe that he and the pilot, Jeffrey Clay, somehow got on the wrong runway.

I mean, that's still unfathomable to me.

>> It was tragic in so many ways and for so many reasons.

And I think there are a lot of people who said, if you could just go back and change one thing in the succession that happened that morning or in the in the steps that happened that morning could have been a totally different outcome.

[MUSIC] But to take off from the wrong runway, it just seemed like.

Unfathomable.

Until you start to hear about all the things that morning that led to that decision.

>> One thing from checking your heading to the fact that there weren't any lights, but your mind tricks you into thinking it's okay because again, you've done this route many times.

The controller doesn't have his back turned to a routine takeoff because there had been 1 or 2 others already that morning.

Any of those things are eliminated.

[MUSIC] We're not having a conversation or having a different one.

>> The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the flight crew members failure to use available cues and aids to identify the airplane's location on the airport surface during taxi, and their failure to cross-check and verify that the airplane was on the correct runway before takeoff.

Contributing to the accident were the flight crew's non-pertinent conversation during taxi, which resulted in a loss of positional awareness.

The air traffic controllers performance of an administrative task that was not directly related to flight safety.

And finally, the Federal Aviation Administration's failure to require that all runway crossings be authorized only by specific air traffic control clearances.

>> Well, there is one survivor whose condition we're continuing to monitor at this hour.

James Polehinke was the first officer on the flight.

>> There was one survivor pulled from the cockpit section of that aircraft, and he was alive when he was rescued by two airport security officers and a Lexington police officer.

>> I remember his leg was so bad.

It was really bad to the point it was almost severed.

He had a lot of facial trauma, a lot of injuries to his neck and such.

Myself and John Solis started to drag him away from the wreckage.

When our second Blue Grass Airport Tahoe pulled up.

That's going to be Pete Maupin, an officer with the Blue Grass Airport Pete pulls up, just Johnny on the spot.

Right, exactly where we're at.

We opened the back door up.

We both push pull hinky into the back of the actual Tahoe itself.

I climb in the.

>> Back on the back of the tire with the airport taking the pilot directly in Roots UK.

Please meet us out front.

It's critical here.

>> Pulling up to the hospital.

I remember this just like it was yesterday.

There's a speedway across the street from the UK hospital.

Pete slams on the brakes right in front of UK Hospital.

And at this time, they were doing a ton of construction.

Like you could not figure out how to actually get into UK hospital just to get to the emergency room doors.

So Pete yelling at me, which way?

Which way?

I vividly remember looking at Speedway, seeing all these kids from the bars that were still standing out there, and I couldn't give him directions appropriately based on my hands, you know, working on Polehinke in the back.

I just yelled at him, just drive through the landscape, just drive over the curbs.

And he didn't even didn't even flinch, turn the Tahoe and just we went right over the the medians, the landscape.

And as we were making our maybe our third hurdle over an island or whatever it whatever it was, I remember looking out the front windshield of the Tahoe and for a split second I felt like there was finally some help for us and there was some emergency room staff.

Sunday morning, warm night.

They were all out there smoking their cigarettes in their scrubs, probably relaxing, and they look up and see a police Tahoe pounding through all the landscape, bouncing, coming straight for them.

And I remember all of them just as as smooth as can be.

Just flicked their cigarettes knowing that this is this is bad.

If the police are driving through the landscaping at a high rate of speed straight for the E.R.

>> Kevin, just a little while ago, a UK PR gave us a very, very brief update on Jim Polehinke.

As you said, he was the first officer of the ill fated Comair Flight 5191.

They tell us that he is still in surgery, still in critical condition, but that's all that they would say.

>> The 44 year old man is at the University of Kentucky tonight in critical condition.

Doctors spoke about his prognosis just a few hours ago.

Our Jerry Sander was at that news conference.

And Jerry, what do you know right now about the survivor's condition?

>> It's more a question of what we don't know.

We know very little about Mr.

Hankey's medical situation.

For example, we don't know the exact nature of his injuries.

We don't know what type of surgery he underwent earlier today.

But at this hour, this much we know, he is in the battle of and for his life.

44 year old James Pelinka was rushed here to the area's level one trauma center after being pulled from the wreckage.

>> From what you're telling me is that he's going through hell himself.

>> Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I think Jim is in his own living hell.

>> I personally don't hold him 100% responsible, but but he he he he he shoulders a lot of responsibility.

He was a decision maker in the cockpit.

>> I was ultimately kind of personally a little disappointed with it.

Not from a if I'd been completely disconnected from it, I wouldn't have known this.

>> It did destroy 50.

And, you know, there was anger there, but I mean, I'm sure he lives with he lives with this every day of his life physically, mentally and will for the rest of his life.

>> He lost his legs.

He's, you know, he's he's not had he's not celebrating anything.

[MUSIC] But it just stopped short of providing any sort of closure.

[MUSIC] Closure is such a weird mushy term.

But of just like, you know, I'm I'm sorry that that not sorry that this happened.

I'm sorry that, you know, that I had something to do with it.

>> The disaster was the magnitude we'd never felt here in my lifetime in this community.

So to have one survivor, even though the circumstances were difficult, it gave a little bit of hope on that day when there was none.

>> This was.

That was a little drawing that Colin drew the day after the crash.

>> We'll keep these all together.

>> In front of 300 family and friends.

Jonathan Hooker and Scarlett Parsley said their I dos.

>> Good morning to you.

Whether it was for pleasure or business, there are 49 lives lost here and countless people touched throughout the bluegrass.

>> Well, the process of bringing the bodies here to the state lab began today at 415.

It ended tonight at 830.

And now all 49 victims bodies are here.

You know, each time a coroner's van came through, it was a constant reminder of the horrific events of this morning.

>> Prayers are definitely going out tonight.

We are all praying for Larry's family and the many other families who are dealing with this horrible tragedy.

Sam.

Larry is one of so many.

We're remembering tonight.

>> The children.

>> Of flight 5191 victim.

>> Larry Turner courageously got up and spoke at his funeral.

That may have been the beginning of their healing process.

>> I think it was.

I was able and I was ready, and I'm so thankful that I did.

[MUSIC] Just to honor my dad and to show some strength.

>> To see.

>> My dad so happy with K was, you know, meant a lot.

You're like, okay, this is this is how it's supposed to be.

You know, one of the smartest people I think me or anybody have ever known he was not.

He was like, funny as hell, but not really gregarious in the slightest.

He was he would come across as kind of taciturn and serious, but was actually not at all.

My older son is very much a cookie cutter kind of doppelganger of my father, and that's not just sort of romanticizing it because he's gone.

He is.

He is.

Absolutely.

It's kind of like it skipped me and went right into to him.

So it's sad that they missed the, the time together.

You know, I've had friends of my father's who say, yeah, it's hard to see Max sometimes because it's just like, you know, this is I'm seeing less Morris here.

>> I have not pulled this out ever.

I mean, these are just things he had would have packed in his suitcase.

It's kind of wild.

I don't know why I kept this.

So this the contents of his wallet, which, as you can see, is not touched.

Everyone loved him.

Larger than life kind of guy.

He was a great dad, very involved.

Dad, anything.

You know, he was the Boy scout leader.

He was a coach.

He anything that he needed to needed to do, he volunteered to do that.

He was a hard worker with his company.

So he put a lot of hours in there.

Everything was great.

I was we were we were we were in a very happy place.

You know, we had a nice, nice house.

Kids were great.

I was I was so happy because I was actually able to finally stay home with my kids.

I had one, he would have given anything to take care of his kids.

So that's a real sore spot with me, is seeing parents who don't take care of their kids, because there are so many that would have loved to have that opportunity, because it is a privilege to raise your children.

>> Amber, one of the 49 killed in the crash, is reported to be Patrick Smith of Lexington, a member of the habitat for humanity International Board of Directors.

>> A tremendous outpouring of community support, which, as always, is to be expected here in the bluegrass because fortunately, we live in a great, compassionate community.

>> Kevin was talking and Kathy Stone, our assistant news director, brought in another piece of paper, and we were in a rhythm now of reporting the news.

So we'd been taking those names and reading them, and they were just names at that point.

But Kathy slipped me a piece of paper that said Pat Smith.

And she said, he's a big deal in habitat for humanity.

[MUSIC] And that's when I gasped.

We just got word in as well that Pat Smith, who was on the Lexington Habitat for humanity board, he was a past president of the Lexington Habitat for humanity was on that flight.

You're looking at video of him right now.

He is on the International Board of directors for habitat.

Also the U.S.

Council for habitat.

That creates policy.

I was supposed to travel with Pat last year to India, where he was so passionate about building homes for the victims of the tsunami.

When he talked to me about building those homes, he shared that passion with me, and he made me feel as he felt about those folks.

He would always say, these people deserve homes.

They deserve homes.

And no doubt, Pat.

In fact, I had an email from him on Friday.

I believe he was on his way to the Gulf Coast.

As we look at the one year anniversary of Katrina, he was so concerned about getting down there with Lexington volunteers to be on the ground and build homes for the folks who were so devastated a year ago by Hurricane Katrina.

But we do have confirmation now from Lexington Habitat that Pat Smith was on board that airplane and has has perished.

>> I remember going back and watching the moment Nancy found out that someone she was very close to was on the flight.

>> Basically, anything that had to do with the crash or with dad after the crash, I just stuck all of it in here, really with the intention at some point to put together some kind of scrapbook with everything.

Although I don't know how big that scrapbook would be now.

After seeing.

>> The box turned in.

>> But partly to.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] As my kids got older to to tell them the story of what happened and what came after the honors that that dad received after.

When he died, dad was headed to Gulfport, where he was overseeing the building of 13 homes for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

And he had wanted all his friends and family to come down and spend the week of Thanksgiving down in Gulfport and build with him.

>> Total devastation all up and down the coastline, houses completely destroyed.

Hundreds, if not thousands of families living in makeshift tents and little wooden structures.

>> And we had all kind of hemmed and hawed and, you know, weren't thrilled with the idea.

And dad's good friend Greg said, I'm taking my family.

Who's joining me?

>> The family of Pat Smith found solace in continuing his work with habitat for humanity.

They spent their first Thanksgiving without him by traveling to Mississippi and helping to rebuild the community he had pledged to help and was traveling to on the day of the crash.

>> So we ended up with about 125 people from Kentucky down in Gulfport Thanksgiving Week building and celebrated a huge Thanksgiving meal together.

And so the Sun Herald in Gulfport, their front page the day of Thanksgiving, it says, thank you, Pat Smith.

>> When I am done.

>> We want to remember the passes, the hooker family, the family, family, family, the Thompsons, the Gilbert and also the Woodward's.

>> You know, the people.

Like I still think about the hookers.

>> To think about John and Scarlett.

I mean, that's the one that hit me the hardest that they were just in this awesome chapter of their lives.

And in an instant, it was done.

>> All I could say in my head is, this is a horrible day for London.

Absolute horrible day for London.

The parsley family was instrumental in our community with so many businesses as well, the entire business.

My heart hurt for them there.

Of course, Holly Gilbert, who was my dad's manager, her family was there in London for many years and my heart hurt for them, so I knew that it was going to be a hard day going back to London and seeing just the change that they had.

>> And then I feel bad.

Like Bobby wanted to go, but didn't want to go because he was terrified of flying and and me telling him when he said, I want to drive, I said, Bobby, you cannot drive there.

I said, you're more likely to get in a car accident than you are be hurt in a plane.

So those words.

>> Brian Bird and Judy and Raines, both of Richmond Brian, a classmate of mine in high school, they were on their way to get married in Saint Lucia.

Brian leaves behind a seven year old child.

>> I could see his face.

I remembered his laugh, I. I knew him and I thought of his mom and dad and his sister and the family in Richmond.

And that made the story real.

And that's when you snap out of being a reporter and realize the real human impact of something like this, and especially that they were on their way to a new chapter in their life, and something that should have been the most joyous time of their life.

And it was just cut short.

So unexpectedly.

>> Husband worked hard as a forensic accountant in Lexington, and she says he played hard, too.

She can still picture him here playing the piano in their living room.

She says he loved a challenge, especially riding his horse.

Marty.

>> Dan Mallory's wife and seven children were front and center at a celebration to remember the avid horseman.

They were joined by several hundred friends.

>> If life is measured by what we leave behind, then the life of Dan Mallory was truly a successful one.

>> In a mound of Kentucky bluegrass, less than a mile from where flight 5191 came to its final rest, a white banner and single white roses mark a memorial coming together to remember lives lost.

>> Represents our respect, our sense of loss, our.

Our sympathies.

>> I think one thing we were very proud of doing that day that hopefully had an impact on everyone, was creating a 5191 banner that was.

We had placed by the airport entrance closer to Versailles Road.

This provided everyone with an opportunity to come somewhere.

Write a message on the banner to anyone you might have known to leave mementos there, and that hopefully gave some folks an ability to express and share their thoughts on what was obviously a very difficult time for our community.

And we kept it.

We kept that banner.

Obviously, it means a lot to a lot of different people.

There's all different types of messages on it.

We wanted to make sure that that's part of the airport's archive forever.

>> After ten years, Michael Gob's journey as Bluegrass Airport's executive director has ended.

>> By my resigning.

Hopefully, that relieves some of the pressure and allows the management team at the airport to get back to managing the airport.

>> Today, state Auditor Crit Llewellyn released this audit detailing what kind of spending was going on for the past three years.

>> The audit documents how the former executive director established a culture of wasteful spending that provided personal benefits for him and others.

>> I knew Mike quite well when we first built the ballpark.

[MUSIC] I went to Bluegrass Airport, and I sort of tangentially through the Chamber of Commerce, knew Mike gob representing the airport, and I went out to make a pitch, as I did in those days for sponsorships.

And Mike and I struck up a good friendship.

>> A guilty plea meant as an apology to the community.

>> Probably very, very sorry for this.

>> And he's going to express that now and on into the future as this case progresses.

And certainly this is the first step of that.

>> Mike had started kind of outwardly showing signs during that whole process of.

[MUSIC] Trying to deal with his own demons.

And they they really came to the surface in his trying to deal with the trauma of the events of 5191.

>> Friday morning in Fayette court, the former leader of Bluegrass Airport pled guilty to two counts of theft by deception.

Mike gob told Judge Goodwin.

Since his indictment in October, he has been depressed.

>> And I called him and I said, hey man, I got a job for you.

And he said, well, you know, I don't want you to be connected.

Hey, it's got nothing to do with that.

I've got a job and I think you can do it.

[MUSIC] And I'm pretty sure I'm going to be getting you on the cheap.

So.

So don't worry about me.

Because I knew the quality of person that he was, and he had himself taken full responsibility for everything, had cleaned himself up in life and was was working his plan.

He was doing great.

And I had no doubts that I was doing the right thing.

And it turns out that Mike was valuable to our company.

[MUSIC] I was proud of him.

I was on the trip as well and and went to Mexico and, and it was a great trip.

And people were telling me what a great job Mike had done and how proud they were of him and his comeback.

And, and he re-injured his back.

And one of the problems that he had previously was with painkillers that had gotten out of control because of his back.

So unbeknownst to me or any of us.

[MUSIC] He he went down that road again.

[MUSIC] So I got in my car and drove out to his apartment.

And knocked on the door.

And the door was open and I found Mike.

[MUSIC] He had he had taken his own life.

>> Michael Gob was found dead inside of his apartment off Tates Creek Road yesterday afternoon.

That news came as a shock to his employer, Stein Group CEO Alan Stein, who describes him as a close friend.

>> I was, of course, devastated that I hadn't been able to help him through his his problems or his pain enough.

And on Monday morning in the mail.

[MUSIC] I received a package from Mike.

[MUSIC] With a long, long letter.

[MUSIC] Saying he was sorry.

I knew Michael before all of this, and I can tell you that 5191 had a profound effect on him.

His.

[MUSIC] His prayers when he was awake and his dreams when he was asleep, or about all those victims of 5191.

>> Do you think it's fair to say that he was also one of the victims of this crash?

>> 100% there.

[MUSIC] There's, in my view.

There's there's no doubt that the impact that this crash had on Mike is what ultimately ended his life.

>> I am pleased to welcome each of you as we remember the lives of the 49 loved ones lost ten years ago today.

[MUSIC] I remember at the time, Governor Ernie Fletcher and the mayor got together and they selected a retired brigadier general, doctor Ray Garman, to be one of the commissioners, but asked me, because of my experience here to be the other Co-commissioners.

>> I'd like to start off today by recognizing the efforts of a man without whom today's ceremony would not have happened.

In fact, without this man, our memorial sculpture itself would not be here.

[MUSIC] I asked Jerry van der Meer to be our host today because he's been a part of our flight 5191 family.

From day one.

>> We got voluntold.

[MUSIC] Immediately people.

>> Started talking about we need to do a memorial, and the design was a good design.

I thought with the birds and then getting the families to participate.

Some families are still coming for the first time.

>> Little did we know it would take five years for that to transpire to have the completion of the memorial itself.

>> I think originally we thought something near the airport would have been nice actually near the site.

I think originally a lot of us wanted it really close to the site of it, but just logistically that wasn't going to probably be safe or work out.

But I was happy with how they did the memorial.

>> I was honored to be asked to be Co-commissioner.

I really was.

>> The symbolism of the of the thing at the Arboretum has kind of become fairly imbued in.

I mean, just the the bird in flight kind of concept.

>> One of the family members to drive the commission, not us.

We were the facilitators.

[MUSIC] We were putting charts on the wall.

We were going, what do you want to do here for about this?

[MUSIC] What's the location?

I'll never forget a meeting with family members in the room went, will you please slow down?

Will you give it a little bit more time?

We need to digest this better.

And at that time, 6 or 7 months into it, they hadn't even had the final findings of the NTSB.

So we went, oh my gosh.

We said, absolutely, you're driving this bus.

[MUSIC] You tell us where we're going, what we're doing.

>> We did a groundbreaking.

Then we did the dedication, then we did the 10th anniversary.

But you can see the families up there all the time.

>> Yes.

I took my daughter actually back in 2015, I think it was 14.

I took her up and took our pictures in front of it.

>> My oldest daughter went to UK, so she went to the arboretum a lot just to hang out and she she found a lot of peace there while she was going to UK going to that memorial.

>> So basic premise that they really were wishing to achieve was something that was uplifting and recognized the dignity of their lives.

And the more we met, the more that jelled as a place that they really felt would be a place that would be uplifting, that was positive.

It was full of life as their loved ones had wanted would want it.

>> Helen Keller said the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, but just felt in the heart.

And so it goes for each of us.

We can no longer see the people that those silver birds represent, but we can feel the love of family and the kindness of strangers all around us.

>> We got that.

I got that just about two years ago.

Yeah.

From the memorial.

[MUSIC] And it's not the only one out there.

I found out there's several.

My my tattoo guy sent me a photo of somebody's arm that he did like a couple of weeks after, and I knew who it was.

So you just kind of, you know, pay tribute however you can, you know.

>> You do have confirmation now from Lexington habitat that Pat Smith was on board that airplane and has has perished.

As soon as the camera cut away from me, I got up and I went to the makeup room right in there.

And I leaned over the seat, the sink.

I leaned over the sink and put my head down so my tears might not mess up my makeup, and they would fall directly into the sink.

>> You know, in the news, you cover a lot of really heavy topics.

And there's an expectation that as a reporter, you just check your emotions at the door.

And we're all human at the end of the day.

And that's a lot easier said than done.

And when you're up on the air in the spotlight, like Nancy was that day, and to just have to be professional, knowing that, you know, you're being ripped apart on the inside is it's a job that I don't think a lot of people can relate to because you all, we all feel.

>> I tell you this, this brings it.

>> The one thing that did happen to me that broke my shield of professionalism.

[MUSIC] I'm on the anchor desk with Barbara, and by now we know that we've lost probably at that point, 49 people, most of them from Kentucky.

[MUSIC] And in.

Into the studio walks my wife.

>> Like no one gets to understand.

>> Unless you're in this role, what it means to deliver news to a community like that and, and take that weight on you and to do it right, to do it with dignity, to not guess.

That's a lot.

You know, that's a lot to know that you're the one with that responsibility.

>> I'm sorry if this is a bit grotesque, but they say fortunately, most of the bodies are intact.

Many are burned beyond recognition.

It fire, Guin says.

And this is strictly speculation that he believes that the people were aware that something was, excuse me, that something was happening, and they were trying maybe to get out or to move.

>> Of course, that's always a possibility when you have a fire, but this was a Hart fire.

I believe most of them are probably going to be due to to the burns.

>> Many tasks involved in this, none of them easy, certainly from removing the bodies, identifying the bodies, investigating the crash.

But when you had to notify those families, that had to be very tough.

>> When they asked me in the after action review that our department completed, you know, I said, well, I've seen a lot of death and destruction in my career.

A lot I go, but I never, ever experienced that much in one place as I did at that airplane.

>> So they asked for volunteers, anybody who was willing to travel and go.

I volunteered and Cecile had volunteered, and we ended up flipping a coin for it because she really wanted to go.

I really wanted to go.

She, she and I decided to flip a coin and.

So I feel some sort of.

Extra pain from that too.

Besides losing her, there was some part of me that's like she was supposed to be here.

>> Some of these family members, when they reach out to me and I feel like they don't even realize they're getting me through that day on like an anniversary week or something.

But by me just simply responding to them and talking to them for 20 or 30 minutes, I feel good knowing that I helped him through that hour, or hopefully that week or month, because I can't even imagine what they're dealing with, let alone what I am.

And I didn't lose anybody that morning.

>> Now that we've seen this tragedy here, obviously you've got to be concerned with people that are out there having to deal with the cleanup and the investigation as well.

I'm surprised over a 20 year period, how many times it comes up in my mind, or I see something that reminds me of that day.

>> I remember the station submitted an open records request for the airport video of all the passengers waiting in the terminal.

>> Well, the family is simply devastated.

I spoke to the pastor who presided over the wedding.

>> I remember, you know, watching that video and.

You had people on their phones, people talking.

And to think.

Some 30, 45 minutes later, this awful crash happened.

I'm glad that the station chose not to air that.

But you.

[MUSIC] I'll never I'll never be able to unsee that video because you see, all of the all of the victims and they're just they have no idea what is about to happen to them.

>> My first night back on patrol 1030 at night, my area was the speedway across from UK campus, two keys and all that, and I needed a gas.

There was 2 or 3 construction guys standing over by the coffee, and they all had the paper open and on the front of it.

If you remember, it's the pictures of all 49 victims.

And I saw it and I was like, I'm in uniform.

I just need to keep walking.

I was feeling like I was going to get upset.

It's my first night back.

A lot of emotion, and I'll be if one of the construction workers guys lowers the paper down just to see who walked in on the the door chime, and he looked at me and he raises the paper back up and he lowers it back down and says, hey, this is you.

And like, I had to leave.

I was like, it just never ends.

It just keeps going.

>> What I think about is the way that so many of the families continued to do things in their loved one's memory.

>> The grief gave way to some really amazing projects.

Scholarships were given to several students at North Laurel High School, where John and Scarlett attended.

In Richmond, a dog park was created in memory of Judy Raines and her fiance, Brian Byrd, who had a passion for their four legged friends.

Golf scrambles and proceeds from the annual Shamrock Shuffle went to the Pat Smith Endowment Fund to benefit habitat for humanity.

>> But I know that it changed me.

Like I think it changed everybody.

Whether you worked in the media, whether you were watching on TV.

Any connection to this city or this community, you were impacted by it, no matter whether you knew someone or not.