"I Cannot Adequately Express... Our Sadness"

Below is the statement released by Comair CEO Don Bornhorst regarding Sunday's accident in Lexington, KY involving a CRJ-200 flying for the airline -- Ed.

On behalf of everyone at Comair, I cannot adequately express to you our sadness about this accident and our deep concern for everyone involved. My thoughts and prayers – and the thoughts and prayers of the entire Comair team – are with them.

At this early stage, I want to emphasize our commitment to our passengers, their families and friends about Flight 5191. Family members and friends from within the US inquiring about passengers aboard this flight should call 1-800-801-0088.

Our top priorities at this time are the following:

Care for families and loved ones of those onboard Flight 5191

Full support for the ensuing investigations

Support for the operation for other customers

At this time, we cannot speculate on the cause of this accident. We will be working closely with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board as these agencies conduct their investigation to determine what caused this tragedy. I personally pledge the total commitment of Comair and its employees to this effort.

We will keep the media and the public informed of developments as they are confirmed. This includes working with the NTSB on the release of names and the status of passengers and crewmembers. The names of those aboard Flight 5191 will be made public only after the proper authorities have positively identified the individuals and we have been confirmed that the families have been notified. This can be a time-consuming process because we want to be absolutely certain that this very sensitive information is correct, so please be patient. Again, we have established a toll-free number and urge families and friends of those on board Flight 5191 to call us at 800-801-0088.

I've been in touch with Delta Chief Operating Officer Jim Whitehurst as well as other Delta executives. Comair has the full support of Delta in providing our airline with any resources necessary to assist families and investigators involved in this accident.

The coming days and weeks promise to be a very challenging time for the Comair team. Let me just re-iterate that we are working closely with authorities to assist in determining the cause of this accident.

On behalf of the 6,400 members of the Comair team, I cannot adequately express to you our sadness about this accident and our deep concern for everyone involved. My thoughts and prayers –- and the thoughts and prayers of the entire Comair team –- are with them.

FMI: www.comair.com, www.ntsb.gov