Alaska B-739 lands on KSEA taxiway

Pilawt

Pilawt

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Pilawt
“An Alaska Airlines passenger jet landed on Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s central taxiway – not the runway – on Dec. 19, the fourth time a pilot has made the error in the history of the airport. Nobody was hurt in the 8:33 a.m. incident, and the Boeing 737-900, Flight 27 from Chicago, brought all passengers to the terminal without issue.”

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/...rlines-pilot-mistakes-taxiway-for-runway.html
 
Wow. During the day especially a clear one, the runway numbers, the threshold and thousand foot markers, white lines versus yellow lines, etc. should make it clear which are the runways and which are taxiways. At night the white lights versus the blue lights should make it obvious. I do not see how with two pairs of supposedly well trained and experienced eyes in the cockpit that this can happen.
 
Perhaps a flashing red X at each end of the taxiway would get pilot's attention. :mad2:
 
It's even in the AFD.

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coloradobluesky said:
Were the runway lights on?
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If I was to guess, it was reduced Visibility and lights weren't on. If the runway was wet, it could obscure the markings. Otherwise, it would seem difficult to misidentify the taxiway.
 
Reason to come in on the ILS or RNAV...

Ive seen daytime like this, dark and lights not on.
 
It's SOP to back up a visual with the ILS or some type of guidance. However, this was a last minute runway change, so they may not have had it dialed in.

It is still surprising, I would've thought it would be something that would be briefed among the crew and be in the pubs that the airline supply regarding the airport.
 
If there was reduced visibility the lights would have been on. We used to have a chart of what step (1-5) to have the runway lights on during reduced visibility. I don't remember though if that included the taxi lights, although it seems they would also be on.
 
Visibility looking up from the tower and ground can be considerably different than visibility coming down through a cloud layer and breaking out below. Or even sunset after a rain can considerably impair the pilots ability to see runway markings. I've notified tower more than once that the light settings were not sufficient for the conditions, but
that has usually happened around twilight.
 
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Oh good, more Monday morning quarterbacking from the student pilots.
 
James331 said:
It's even in the AFD.

image.jpg
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Even worse than that it's on the airport diagram too via a special caution notice!

(Edit, see it's 4th time overall, not 4th for same pilot. My bad).
 
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Fearless Tower said:
This thread is even worse over on Beech Talk.
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It's wonderful that we are gifted with the knowledge of such skilled aviators, who even in their double-digit (maybe even low triple digit!) hours have gained so much knowledge that they are incapable of errors of flight.

As for me, I've lined up on the wrong runway before. I back all runways up with a straight in approach, but mistakes happen, SOPs get skipped, and sometimes a straight-in isn't available.

Remember the 747 that landed at the wrong airport? Human factors are real, and people make mistakes.
 
rocketflyer84 said:
Absolutely, but if the same pilot did that 4 times I think it would be time for a chat...
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Sure, but it was 4 times a pilot had made the mistake in the history of the airport. Not 4 times that pilot had made the mistake.

Most of the time lining up with the wrong runway (or a taxiway) is caught in time and results in a side step.
 
It's the fourth time that A pilot landed on the taxiway, not the fourth time THAT pilot did it. If the same pilot had done it three times before, he wouldn't be flying 121.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Sure, but it was 4 times a pilot had made the mistake in the history of the airport. Not 4 times that pilot had made the mistake.

Most of the time lining up with the wrong runway (or a taxiway) is caught in time and results in a side step.
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Yes, that was my bad. That's what I get for reading too fast. It's still bad this keeps happening though even with the extra warnings. Probably time to install some red lights or something at the end of that taxiway.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
It's wonderful that we are gifted with the knowledge of such skilled aviators, who even in their double-digit (maybe even low triple digit!) hours have gained so much knowledge that they are incapable of errors of flight.
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I must have missed it, who are the student pilots and where is flight time listed?
 
I didn't read Monday morning quarterbacking, rather people expressing surprise that professional pilots would keep missing the runway even with extra notices.

That's not questioning the pilots as much as it is questioning the setup that keeps causing this issue. It is a serious accident waiting to happen if someone is cleared to pull out onto the taxiway and this happens. There are tons of airports with parallel taxiways, just curious what's so special about this one that causes this to keep happening.
 
Some airports have TAXI in big letters or a serpentine paint job on the parallel taxiway. But there will be errors. I lined up on the taxiway at KLAS once...
 
It could happen even though the weather wasn't that bad when they landed. I believe the tower had them change runways and they simply didn't sidestep enough.
 

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Why can't we find perfect humans? They seem to be all over the internet.......
 
Based on the photos, I can see why it's happened 4 times. It's a bad layout design.
 
rocketflyer84 said:
I didn't read Monday morning quarterbacking, rather people expressing surprise that professional pilots would keep missing the runway even with extra notices.
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If anyone is curious how a professional flight crew can mistakenly land on a taxiway, look up the NTSB report on DAL flight 60 (landed on t-way M instead of 27R at ATL, 18 OCT 2009).

Things aren't always as simple as they might seem when reported by the news.
 
Fearless Tower said:
If anyone is curious how a professional flight crew can mistakenly land on a taxiway, look up the NTSB report on DAL flight 60 (landed on t-way M instead of 27R at ATL, 18 OCT 2009).

Things aren't always as simple as they might seem when reported by the news.
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Whaaaaaaaat? You mean the same people that call any movable surface on an aircraft a "flap" (including gear doors...) might not be accurately or completely reporting a story on an aviation issue?
 
Omalley1537 said:
Whaaaaaaaat? You mean the same people that call any movable surface on an aircraft a "flap" (including gear doors...) might not be accurately or completely reporting a story on an aviation issue?
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Number one rule of journalism, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
 
Norman said:
Was this the crew from Asiana 214? :D
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Actually, it's the polar opposite. The pilot was obviously hand-flying the aircraft, otherwise the autopilot would have taken it to a runway, not a taxiway.

We complain that some pilots trust the automation too much. Wrong runway, or even wrong airport, incidents are the reverse of the coin.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Back in the old Denver Stapleton days there was a similar note in the plates to avoid mistaking Taxiway C for a runway. Coming in from the east (usual landing configuration), you were presented with four big parallel pieces of asphalt: 25, 26L, Taxiway C, and 26 if I recall properly.

There were a few landings on Taxiway C. The last one of note was a Continental flight that landed there with infamous airline president Frank Lorenzo aboard. At least they put the gear down.

It happens with small planes all the time. My first flight instructor caused a bit of commotion at BWI one day (I wasn't aboard, I had driven my car with a bunch of flying buffs out to FDK while he was flying from BWI to FDK that day).

I'm typically working at Oshkosh standing on Taxiway Papa sorting ground traffic. One day I was standing at the intersection of Papa and Papa 3. I had just motioned for a Bonanza to turn north on Papa when he locked up his brakes. Another plane shot by very quickly on Papa. Where did he come from and why was he going so fast, and then it occurred to me that he had just landed on Papa. I believe the FAA had a talk with him in the North 40.

The next day a bunch of guys came out with paint brushes to put large X's on the end of taxiway Papa. They stood around having some sort of committee discussion down there prompting me to ask my coworkers if you think they were having a hard time figuring out how to spell "X".
 
The airline I flew for had at least a couple of taxiway landings, at ATL. Not Delta. One of the Capt's was fired.
 
flyingron said:
The next day a bunch of guys came out with paint brushes to put large X's on the end of taxiway Papa. They stood around having some sort of committee discussion down there prompting me to ask my coworkers if you think they were having a hard time figuring out how to spell "X".
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Did they paint "XXVIII" on the other end?
 
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