We are coming up on the 20th anniversary of the tragic crash of Comair Flight 5191 that killed 49 people at Lexington's Bluegrass Airport.

A new documentary titled 49 dads in Honor of the victims, recounts the crash and its aftermath with first responders, journalists who covered the disaster, local leaders and victims family sharing personal experiences.

Lanny Brannock, the writer, director and producer of the documentary and a former television journalist who covered the crash, says he hopes 49 doves can serve as centralized historical document of that tragic day.

Lainie Brannock was a television reporter in Lexington in 2006, when flight 5191 crashed at Lexington's Bluegrass Airport, killing 49 people.

Covering the events of that tragic day and its aftermath took its toll and almost two decades after that disaster shocked the region, he decided there were still stories to be told.

When the 19th anniversary rolled around last year.

And I saw the coverage and it just it wasn't very much well, I thought it warranted more coverage and it got and I was like, I could do that.

I think I can do that.

And so that was where the the idea started.

The documentary includes interviews from a wide variety of people involved with the crash, including victims families, first responders, local leaders and journalists.

My media colleagues, and I've never really been able to say much publicly about the crash because we were covering the crash.

But 20 years later, I think it was time for us to be able to tell our story and how the crash impacted us.

So I started interviewing those folks, and then at some point in time, I made a post in one of the flight 5191 Facebook groups that said, hey, this is who I am.

This is my connection to the flight.

I covered it the day of and covered it for months after.

I'm working on a documentary.

If you would like to be part of it, let me know.

Or if you have someone that you know would like to be part of it, let me know.

And so I got enough feedback from that to get me going down the road.

There's a fine line between brave and stupid, and it was brave and or maybe stupid to post in the flight 5191 group to say, hey, nobody asked for this, but I'm working on a documentary.

But, I did get so much positive support.

So once I had that, from several family members and first responders and media folks, I knew it was a project that could be done and maybe needed to be done.

Brannick said filming was an emotional experience for himself and the people he interviewed.

You find out when you talk to families that they have kind of dealt with it in a way that's different than people that have not impacted, Wright.

Deal with it.

And so I had more journalists really shed tears than I did family members.

And, all 3 or 4 of them.

Mike ugly cried on camera.

Now, that's not all that's in the film.

But like, yeah, I mean, there it was.

I knew that we had not dealt with it in an appropriate way, and it came out as you do the interviews.

I would cry right along with people that were crying.

So, when I first started doing interviews, the first couple of interviews, I am reliving with them when someone was emotional, I would be emotional with them.

Producing this documentary reminded him just how deeply this tragedy impacted the community.

You don't have to go very far to find somebody that had some sort of connection.

You can't talk to many people in Lexington that don't have a story, and that doesn't just include Lexington.

It's all over Kentucky.

I'm thinking of the story that I did a couple of days later, when all the families got on the big UK tour busses and went out to the scene, and people lined the roads with their sides, you know, saying, we love you and all that kind of stuff.

And everybody that signed that 5191 banner.

Lexington really came together as a community to support those families.

49 doves.

The flight 5191 disaster recently premiered at the Kentucky Theater to a crowd of over 500 people.

I was just overwhelmed with the response, and all the families came out, and I got to meet so many of them, and that was it was really nice to meet all those folks and to have them see the premiere.

And, and some didn't come, some won't ever see it, and that's okay.

August 27th, 2026 will mark 20 years since the crash for Kentucky edition.

I'm Clayton Dalton.