Comair investigation

Reading the recently released transcripts of the cockpit conversations,
I was surprised by their callousness. One pilot observes that there are
no runway lights, and the is "yeah". What??? When did this type of
callousness creep into the cockpit? The attitude of "yeah, sure,
whatever" does not even belong in a Cessna 150. There was no discussion
about asking tower to turn up the lights. For all that they knew, they
could have been lined up in front of a brick wall.

One pilot says "I'll take us to Atlanta", and the other pilot says
"sure". Now I don't know about airline operations, but is this decision
made while taxiing to the runway?

I have spoken about this to other Comair pilots, and they seem to
vehemently defend the pilots actions, and blame airport signage and
runway lights. Try as I may, I can't see it that way. I know there were
several on this group who also said the same thing.