I guess he was trying to make it to the gate for an ontime arrival.
He set a 757 down on a 75ft wide taxiway an proceeded to the gate like as if nothing happened.
Here is the link to the story:
nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/in … xml&coll=1
Consequences should be?
A firm slap to the side of the head.
That, and never piloting an airliner again.
Seriously, something like this can easily get a pilot fired (hell, screwing up a sim ride can do that!), and pretty much kill any chance of getting another airline job.
Landing at KEWR, it’s a wonder the taxiway wasn’t full of traffic. How could a CONTINENTAL crew be that unfamiliar with Newark? I didn’t read the entire story. Was this the crew’s first landing there? These guys should lose their job. I don’t see any explanation that would excuse this.
BTW: For future reference, Continental is “COA.” I thought for a moment that Air California (California Air?) was back in the game…
Edit CAL is actually the abbreviation for China Airlines.
Wow, I am hella disappointed in you guys for not catching this and bitchin about it:
http://discussions.flightaware.com/viewtopic.php?t=2382h
If I’m not mistaken it’s the same event.
Time show that the other post was made first…
Caught it, but let it go since it has an extremely poor topic title (you must admit it lieberma), does not have any topical information in the post to search for, and is in a different (correct) forum.
um, there are no centerline lights on a taxiway - how the hell do you land on a taxiway when the runway right next to it has white and red edge lights and centerline lighting while the taxiway has blue lights?
I know this happens, but how?
Another close call at Newark. Plus, I don’t have a link, but an Alaskan 737 took off from the wrong runway at KSEA the other day, and ATC noticed, but let it go, since traffic was not affected. Now, the FAA is looking into it. Who gets in more hot water there?
Is it something in the air (so to speak)?
The taxiway has green centerline lights, but I can’t see how those would look white from the plane. Although the taxiway on both sides of the runway are wider than the actual runway.
by definition they are not centerline lights!!!
is that a Viking I see?
Right out of the AIM… Taxiway Centerline Lights are green.
Taxi edge lights are blue.
And the runway edge lights are all white until the last 2000 ft. and turn to yellow. Ruway centerline lights are white until the last 3000 ft then alternate red and white until 2000 ft and then are all red.
faa.gov/ATPubs/AIM/Chap2/aim … GpJ384JACK
Its an Aztec, PA-23.
Thought I’d try to justfiy the reason for landing on the wrong pavement, thus the subject line 
Actually, search of taxiway brings up this discussion and the one under airlines which would have been the keyword I used for searching, since not many people (including myself) would know the offending airline and airline number.
Allen
I would rather land on the wrong taxiway then take off from the wrong runway.
A couple years ago there was a regular problem at SEA of airliners landing on a taxiway. Meanwhile the Port of Seattle is spending billions to construct a third runway when they already have taxiway T.
It’s amazing how the mental map/compass can turn itself around. I’ve seen guys, general aviation, announce Downwind Runway 9, Base Runway 9, Final Runway 9, and land on 27. It’s just really bad when the crew of a commercial airliner, persumably highly trained, carrying passengers, and with access to a slew of avionics dedicated to situational awareness, makes this kind of mistake. But, as this and other events show, it can and does happen; it’s not impossible.
Not that anyone is suggesting it, but just as an observation, this doesn’t mean that we should become more dependant on computers, since a computer couldn’t make this kind of mistake (or could it?). What this situation begs us to do, however, is to make sure we don’t make the same mistake. In the wake of this event, I bet pilots across the country are double checking, on short final, that they are where they are supposed to be. Just as I’m sure after the Comair crash in Lexington, KY, pilots across the country were double checking the headings on the takeoff roll. It’s been a while since that incident. How many pilots are still checking their headings on every takeoff roll?
We always set the heading bug for the departure runway, and after the accident we select HDG on the Flight Director before takeoff. If we’re not lined up the FD will be commanding a turn which should be quite obvious.
While I’m not exactly defending the pilot, the approach to 29 has a Kai Tak’ish element to it. You run the approach to the 22’s as normal, but then at the middle marker, you make a very steep left turn, followed by an equally steep right turn, lining you up with the runway. So basically you run most of the approach perpendicular to the runway, then turn and land on it at the last second.
When I have flown on a plane (never bigger than a ERJ, but 777’s have landed on 29 before) on this approach, we have sometimes been still leveling our wings when crossing the turnpike, which people familiar with EWR know abuts the threshold of 29. Why he didn’t notice his misalignment and abort, I don’t know. Pressed for time, etc etc, it’ll eventually come out.
Having never been to Newark, and the weather being clear, would you have to do all these gyrations if you were cleared for the visual?
I would have assumed (yes I know what assume means!) that on clear days, you could / would be cleared for the visual approach?
Or are visual approaches not done in Bravo airspace for the jet jockeys?
Allen
Remember GIGO when interfacing with computers, so it could happen…
Garbage In, Garbage Out
Though, hard to imagine a computer lining up for a landing on a taxiway parallel to a runway…
Allen
there is a great video out there of airline jets on final doing the zig zag.
jets are routinely cleared for visual approaches into class B fields, though it depends quite a bit on the airspace layout as to how they vectored and fly the visual approach.
Here’s the hourly weather observations before/after they landed:
KLGA 292251Z 27017G28KT 10SM FEW070 11/M06 A2978 RMK AO2 PK WND 26030/2203
KLGA 292351Z 28016G23KT 10SM CLR 11/M06 A2982 RMK AO2 PK WND 27030/2324