Updated: Delta Air Lines pilots decide Taxiway M should be Altanta’s new parallel runway.
(Photo by Fernando Montalvo for Velozia Air)
Updated: The FAA released an ATC recording of Delta Flight 60’s incident. While the recording is relatively uneventful, except for the “Call the tower” remark at the end which signifies the crew is in trouble, I figured I would post it HERE.
On my last post, I mentioned how distracted pilots spent last week overshooting destinations because they were apparently using laptops in the air and taxiing into active runways when other planes were using for takeoff. The latter of course, is a very dangerous scenario. The deadliest accident in aviation occurred this way and, ever since the Tenerife disaster of 1977, many systems have been put into place to keep it from happening again. Of course, while usually we talk of airplanes crossing into active runways, we must also look at when a Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-300ER suddenly touches down on an active taxiway, instead of on the runway, as happened at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport (ATL) on October 19, 2009. Yet another incident to add to last week’s weird incidents.
Delta Air Lines Flight 60, coming in from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at 6:05 AM EDT (193 people on board), was given clearance to land in ATL’s runway 27R, marked by the red box in the picture below. For those of you not familiar with runway layouts, the aircraft was supposed to have landed on the darker line with the letters 27R on the right side of it. The plane would have approached the runway from the side labeled 27R. However, for who knows what reason, the 767 landed on parallel taxiway M (just above the runway in the layout). The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are investigating the matter, naturally.
Atlanta runway diagram. The area of the incident is marked by the box.
Winds were calm and visibility was good (10 miles) for this early morning (and still night) landing, so gusts did not cause any problem and the pilots could clearly see ATL’s runways. Runway lights were turned on and, as always, are a different and brighter color as the standard blue taxiway lights (runway lights are white, except towards the end at which point they turn yellow). Heck, there are other lights on a runway that clearly identify it as such: runway centerline lights, touchdown zone lights, runway edge lights, etc. So how the heck did they mistake taxiway for a runway and land a 767 on it? Do they need Bruce Willis (a.k.a. John McClane) to light up the runway with fire like in Die Hard 2? Luckily, no other airplanes or ground vehicles were on the taxiway. A good thing since ATL is one of the world’s busiest airports and anyone who has been there knows how busy the taxiways can be.
It will be interesting to see what the investigation turns up. October 19th through the 25th: Pilot Distraction Week (hey, Discovery has Shark Week). Hopefully, this kind of event stays “last week” and we don’t see anything more like this in the coming weeks.
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[...] Delta plane lands in taxiway. [...]
I could be very wrong, but it appears to me that landing a large airplane on an active taxiway just before sun-up is much more dangerous than flying distracted at FL370 on autopilot while not in verbal contact with Air Traffic Control, but in electronic (transponder)contact with ATC. It will be very interesting to see how the FAA/NTSB decides which crew put their passengers in the greater jeopardy, and how Delta/Northwest handle punishment if the FAA lets them return to the cockpit.
H Beckwith,
I don’t think the FAA would intentionally pit these two incidents against each other to see which one was worse. The taxiway landing is in fact a way more dangerous scenario (even though they both are in the end) as you say. Although the reasons are different in each case, I do believe both crews should get the boot. The NW crew for ignoring their duties while in flight and the DL crew for something that could have killed a lot of people (imagine if two or three planes had been taxiing in close proximity). As is the case sometimes, we may see differences in how the cases are handled, but that happens based on which FAA office was handling the case. However, with enough media attention, the punishments are bound to be severe.
Fernando
[...] One of 2009’s weirdest aircraft incidents was when Delta Flight 60, a Boeing 767 (registration N185DN) inbound from Rio de Janeiro/Galeão-Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport (GIG; ICAO:SBGL) in Brazil, landed at Atlanta Hartsfield (ATL) taxiway M, instead of on a runway, as most pilots like to do. Luckily, no other planes were in the taxiway at the time (which, considering this is one of the world’s busiest airports is VERY lucky). No one was hurt and the plane taxied to the gate. The incident could have been incredibly catastrophic had one or more planes been on the taxiway, possibly becoming one of the worst aircraft accidents ever. Just imagine this plane landing on a taxiway with 3 or four planes on it! The incident took place at 6:05 AM EDT on October 19, 2009 as the plane was approaching Delta’s hub in Atlanta. You can see the original post on this story HERE. [...]