Delta Flight 60 Lands on Taxiway at ATL

[Aggiesrul8]

Suprised nobody has mentioned this yet, pretty weird happenings...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/21/georgia.taxiway.incursion/index.html

Might just be the media running wild with this (not like the media would ever do such a thing dealing with aviation), but interesting, to say the least.

Here is the NTSB preliminary report. I know it sheds no light on anything, but just wanted to include this for those interested.

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20091020X05636&key=1

[AVION1]

Would be pretty funny to hear the CVR.....Oopss wrong runway!!!

[orangehuggy]

...
Here is the NTSB preliminary report.
...

Thats in-depth:

Taxiway M landing at ATL

Ooops is right but it was not the wrong runway it wasn't a runway at all.

talking about oooops - what happened to that thread?

[brianw999]

Oooooops !

How much money on a 767 Delta Captain having an unexpected appointment tomorrow morning with the Delta Chief Training Captain ?

[saupatel]

How much money on a 767 Delta Captain having an unexpected appointment tomorrow morning with the Delta Chief Training Captain ?

That is if he doesn't get a call asking him to take a permanent vacation instead .

[twagenknecht]

Outer marker -- check
Middle marker -- check
Inner marker -- check
Touchdown -- DOOOH...missed again.

[TeeVee]

Damn! I have a friend who is a 767 captain for delta. he usually flies ATL to points on the eastern side of the Atlantic though. Maybe I'll give him a call...

[Eric Diffoot]

How did they confused for starters a runway that is well lighted with approach and centerline lights versus a taxiway with only lighted with green and blue lights?

I could only imagine what it must have been for whoever to have report the incident....."Hi this is such and such from the air traffic control tower at atlanta international, we just had a delta 767 land on the taxiway instead of the runway....how....i don't know?"

[AVION1]

I only assume this guy was flying the airplane....

[UncleFire]

This might shed some "light" on the situation.... no pun intended.

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/21/feds-probing-jet-landing-on-taxiway-cite-lights-instruments/

The runway was marked with yellow lights, while the taxiway was marked with blue lights, one person familiar with the incident said. The NTSB said the runway lights were 27R were illuminated, but a "localizer" and approach lights for the runway were off.

[Eric Diffoot]

No pun intended....ha.

Even with that, the pilots should have asked tower to turn the lights on 27R and why were the approach lights and localizer off for 27R, if it's proven to be true. I would believe the pilots, experienced pilots I assume, flying a 767, have flown in and out of Atlanta enough to identify what is runway 27R and taxiway M, even with certain lights off, unless visibility and weather at the prevented such identification.

[MCM]

It just again highlights the fact that, at night, runways and taxiways can be difficult to tell apart. If a crew, who are experienced and operated to the airfield many times, can do it, then anyone can.

Not all runways are always lit up like christmas trees.

[Gabriel]

No pun intended....ha.

Even with that, the pilots should have asked tower to turn the lights on 27R and why were the approach lights and localizer off for 27R, if it's proven to be true.

The runway lights were turned on. The apporach lights that precede the runway were off. Neither the approach lights nor the localizer are required equipment for landing in night VFR conditions. Some runways don't even have neither approach lights nor localizer.

That doesn't invalidate the point that, in this case, had the approach lights been turned on, the incident would have very likely been avoided (the same if the loaclizer was turned on and the crew had it tunned and was tracking it).

While I can evision the mistake at the beginning, wehre the color of the dim lights can be hard to tell (the eye tends to see in black and white when the light source is very weak), I can't see how they didn't figure it out in time to make at least a low go-arround. Still, it's not the first time something like this happens.

[TeeVee]

heh! how about that korean air or JAL pilot that landed on a taxiway in broad daylight!

this quote just kills me:

"
The FAA's Kathleen Bergen tells WSB's Bob Coxe Delta Flight #60 from Rio had been cleared to land on runway 27R just after 6 Monday morning.
Instead, it landed on a parallel taxiway:
"Pilots are trained to land on the runway," Bergen says. "Taxiway landing is not appropriate, so we will be investigating it very thoroughly in determining why that happened."


ya think?!?!

[Aggiesrul8]

heh! how about that korean air or JAL pilot that landed on a taxiway in broad daylight!

this quote just kills me:

"
The FAA's Kathleen Bergen tells WSB's Bob Coxe Delta Flight #60 from Rio had been cleared to land on runway 27R just after 6 Monday morning.
Instead, it landed on a parallel taxiway:
"Pilots are trained to land on the runway," Bergen says. "Taxiway landing is not appropriate, so we will be investigating it very thoroughly in determining why that happened."


ya think?!?!

I thought it was natural to be trained to land on adjacent taxiways??? You telling me my instructor short-changed me???