The National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. is "deeply dissatisfied" with the outcome of the US National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the Aug. 27, 2006, crash of a Comair CRJ200 in Lexington, Ky., saying FAA was not sufficiently criticized or blamed for failing to schedule two controllers the morning of the flight.

A single controller was on duty at the time of the accident and had turned away from the window to handle paperwork when the CRJ taxied onto the wrong runway.

"This was somebody who was put in a bad situation by the FAA," NATCA spokesperson Doug Church said. "You are asking for bad things to happen when you are understaffed." Church claimed the agency has failed to address the issue, which he said could lead to similar accidents or near misses in the future.

NTSB determined that the pilots failed to use visible cues and other aids to identify their location before mistakenly taking off on a runway reserved for general aviation aircraft. It recommended enhanced taxiway centerline markings and painted surface hold position signs at runway entrances and that an aircraft not be cleared for takeoff until it has crossed all intersecting runways.

The Board also asked FAA to modify its ATC policy by asking controllers to "refrain from performing administrative tasks, such as the traffic count, when moving aircraft are in the controller's area of responsibility" and revising work-scheduling policies to guarantee controllers adequate rest between shifts.