Airplane Lands in the Wrong Place at Newark

This is not a good time for Newark Liberty Airport. First there was the TSA sting to see how well screeners would do with undercover agents traveling with 'bombs" and things (not well). And now there's a story about a pilot landing a plane on a taxiway instead of a runway.

The Post reports that a Continental Airlines filght "touched down on a taxiway just to the north of the runway - only feet from administrative buildings" on Saturday. Yikes. One source said, "This is a big f---ing deal! How do you land a jet on a taxiway?"

But rather than landing on the 6,800-foot-long, 150-foot-wide Runway 29, it touched down on the 70-foot-wide taxiway at 6:31 p.m., sources said.

The wingspan of the jet is 155 feet.

The pilot made such a short stop, he left skid marks on the taxiway, which were later found by police investigating the bizarre incident, according to a source.

Experts said they were baffled how, on a clear night, the pilot could mistake a runway for a taxiway.

The sun had set at 5:58 p.m.

The plane carried 157 passengers and a crew of six, airline officials said.

Port Authority police were immediately notified.

But the pilot didn't hang around to explain himself.

And the source said the crew didn't acknowledge they landed on the taxiway either. We wonder if, as a passenger, you would notice that you were on a narrow taxiway - you would certainly notice a bad, short-stop landing. We're surprised workers from the admin building weren't at the gate, waiting to question the pilot.

The FAA is investigating the incident. And the airplane crash in Kentucky occured when a pilot took off from the wrong runway.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on October 31, 2006 11:32 AM

Comments [rss]

doug

how do you prove it? the skid marks could have been there from any number of aircraft for any number of reasons. the pilot will just say who me? no way, didn't happen, prove it! and he's right

PChan

You're right...there is no ILS for 29. So it's a manual look-and-see out the window. Landing lights on at night would have allowed the cockpit crew to spot any traffic on the taxiway anyway and go around if that were the case. There isn't too much to worry about, actually, and the pilots did notice after they touched down. That's why there are skid marks from stopping ASAP, and the pilots admitted their mistake to ATC almost immediately after landing.

RJL

Not surprising the pilot bugged out - the union will only defend him if he doesnt shoot his mouth off in advance. The bigger issue is that the industry makes a huge deal out of cockpit resource management - training crew members to always be vigilent that one of them is could be making a mistake (or about to). So, to carry off this amazing taxiway landing you either had two pilots with heads up asses or one pilot with head up ass and another not taking appropriate action to inform the so-afflicted pilot. Weird thing is there is not even an instrument approach to RY29;- so no reason for either pilot to be looking at anything except the view out the window... Should be an interesting explanation when we hear it!

Rob

Like said above at least noone was killed. Mistakes happen and although aviation isn't the place for mistakes we are human and we can't get around it occasionaly.

Captain Obvious

Some would argue that landing in New Jersey constitutes landing in the wrong place.

Peter

It is not unheard-of for pilots to mistake taxiways for runways. It used to be a problem for one of the runways in Las Vegas until some markings were changed to make it clear what's the runway and what's the taxiway. And there have been three such mistakes in the last year or so among pilots using a newly constructed runway (and taxiway) in Seattle.

ABC Girl

The pilot should be commended for safely landing a plane on a taxiway instead of the runway. Then he should be fired for being such an idiot.

S.D.

Possible Drunk Flying??

S.D.

Possible Drunk Flying??

Kojak

This truly comforts me since I'm flying Continental out of Newark Thursday.

Those wacky Continental Pilots. I’m going to ask my pilot to do a barrel roll.