Associated Press, "Comair Air Crash: Lexington, Kentucky tower chief was criticized in FAA e-mails"

          The day after the plane crash that killed 49 people, high-ranking officials with the Federal Aviation Administration suggested that the Lexington air traffic manager was a "renegade" and speculated he would be fired for having only one controller on duty at the time.
          In August 28th e-mails obtained yesterday by The Associated Press, the FAA's Eastern and estern terminal services directors discussed the decision by Blue Grass Airport tower manager Duff Ortman to staff the overnight or "mid" shift with one controller, despite an FAA directive that there should be two.
          "Just FYI that despite the mandate ... to have two people work the separate positions on the mids -- the Lexington manager was only scheduling one person on the Saturday to Sunday morning mids," Eastern director John McCartney wrote to his West and Central colleagues. "Would have been good for that to be shared with the Hub manager. No factor in the accident but -- the (air traffic manager) is accountable for his decision."
          McCartney also wrote that he was trying to verify there were "no other renegades left and not staffing the mids." A little over an hour later, Western terminal director John Clancy responded that Ortman "will probably be removed as manager of the facility."

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