{"id":5331,"date":"2018-08-07T14:32:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T18:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=5331"},"modified":"2020-05-07T12:37:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:37:14","slug":"runway-who-needs-one-when-you-have-a-taxiway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/runway-who-needs-one-when-you-have-a-taxiway\/","title":{"rendered":"Runway? Who needs one when you have a taxiway!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s happened again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around midnight on a perfectly clear nigh<\/strong>t last week in Riyadh, a Jet Airways 737 tried to take off on a taxiway<\/strong><\/a>. The crew mistaking a new taxiway for a runway<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

The crew, with thousands of hours experience, took off on a surface that didn\u2019t have runway markings or runway lights. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt.\u00a0 It\u2019s too early to exactly say why this happened, but it\u2019s clear that some sort of \u201cexpectation bias\u201d<\/strong> was a factor. Expecting to make the first left turn onto the runway. One has to ask \u2013 was ATC monitoring the take off?<\/p>\n

After the tragic Singapore 747 accident<\/a> in Taipei, technology was developed to audibly notify crew if they were about to depart “ON TAXIWAY”<\/strong>. This is known as the\u00a0Runway Awareness and Advisory System<\/a> (RAAS).<\/p>\n

Sadly the Riyadh incident is not isolated. There have been a plethora of near misses in the past few years (more details in Extra Reading below).<\/p>\n

\"\"There have also been more than a few \u201cincidents\u201d of aircraft from C17\u2019s<\/a> to 747s<\/a> landing<\/strong> at the wrong<\/strong> airports! The most notable near miss recently was that of an Air Canada A320 nearly landing on a taxiway<\/a> full of aircraft at KSFO\/San Francisco<\/strong>. But it\u2019s happened to Delta<\/a> and Alaskan Air<\/a> recently too.<\/p>\n

It is an even bigger issue at a General Aviation level (and not just because Harrison Ford did it<\/a>!). The FAA safety team recently noted<\/a>;<\/p>\n

The FAA Air Traffic Organization (ATO) has advised of an increase in, \u201cWrong Surface Landing Incidents<\/strong>\u201d in the National Airspace System (NAS).<\/em><\/p>\n

Incidents include:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n