This is certainly not a good way to wake up on a Sunday morning when I’m supposed to be on vacation.

Or any morning for that matter.

I thought tracking Hurricane Ernesto yesterday was bad news enough. But while news about his future exploits seem to be more favorable to those of us in the New Orleans area this morning, unfortunately there was bad news of another kind.

This morning Comair flight 5191, which was on its way from Lexington, Ky., to Atlanta crashed shortly after take-off. The flight had 47 passengers and three crew members. One report says there is one survivor. Other reports say all aboard were killed in what was described as a “fiery” crash.

The aircraft was apparently a Bombardier CRJ-100.

As the Associated Press reminded us this morning,

“The crash marks the end of what has been called the “safest period in aviation history”. There has not been a major crash since November 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 plunged into a residential neighborhood in the Queens borough of New York City, killing 265 people, including five on the ground.

On January 8, 2003, an Air Midwest commuter plane operated by Mesa Air Group crashed on takeoff at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, killing all 21 aboard.

Last December, a seaplane operated by Chalk’s Ocean Airways crashed off Miami Beach, Florida, when its right wing separated from the fuselage shortly after takeoff, killing the 18 passengers and two crew members. That plane, a Grumman G-73 Turbo Mallard, was built in 1947 and modified significantly in 1979.”