FAA examining why jet landed on taxiway, not runway, at major NYC-area airport



NEWARK, N.J. - Federal authorities are investigating how a jetliner carrying more than 160 people landed on a taxiway instead of an adjacent runway at Newark’s Liberty Airport.

    No one was injured when the Continental Flight from Orlando, Fla., landed in the wrong place Saturday night. Taxiways often have planes, vehicles or personnel on them.

    The Boeing 757-200 should have landed on the shortest of the airport’s three runways, but it instead touched down on a taxiway parallel to the runway, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

    The FAA had not interviewed the pilot and co-pilot as of Tuesday, but Continental Airlines Inc. said both pilots had been grounded.

    “The pilots have been temporarily removed from flying duties and are assisting the company in analyzing the incident,” Continental spokeswoman Mary Clark said.

    All navigational equipment and lights at the airport were working at the time, Peters said. The runways are edged in white lights, and have white lights down the center, while taxiways are bordered by blue lights, and have green lights down the center.

    “It could have been ugly, God forbid,” Russ Halleran, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association local at the airport, told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Tuesday’s editions. “Pretty lucky. Overall, that’s how we have to look at it.”

    Newark Liberty International Airport is one of three major airports serving the New York City area.




On Saturday evening, Continental Flight 1883 was heading to Newark from Florida. It was supposed to land on a runway like all jetliners do, but instead it touched down on a taxiway, according to Port Authority officials.

The plane skirted just feet away from administration buildings that line the taxiway. None of the 157 passengers and six crewmembers were injured when the plane landed at 6:31 p.m. Saturday.

The Boeing 757-200 should have landed on Runway 29, the shortest of the airport's three runways, but instead touched down on Taxiway Z, which is parallel to the runway, said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA is "investigating it as a (possible) pilot deviation" from proper safety procedures, Peters said.

Experts told WCBS-TV that they are baffled how the pilot, responsible for 157 passengers, could have mistaken a taxiway for a runway.

--A runway is well lighted with white lights.

--A taxiway has blue lights and usually those lights don't go on during daylight hours.

--The taxiway is 70-feet wide.

--Runway 29 is 150-feet wide.

--Sunset was at 5:58 p.m., but it wasn't completely dark at the time.

--The rain had stopped, but the winds were fierce.

Could that have played a factor? A retired safety investigator told WCBS-TV "No."

An experienced pilot that retired with Continental Airlines (which has a hub in Newark) should be quite familiar with this airport, he said.

The FAA will be examining the plane's cockpit voice recorder. After all, there were other crewmembers on that flight, including the co-pilot.

For now, officials told WCBS-TV that the pilot and the co-pilot have been temporarily removed from their duties as the FAA investigates.

The matter is so serious that the pilots could face fines and even have their licenses taken away.

It has been done before...humans can make very weird decisions at times.
The runway did not have ILS, but it should nevertheless be a given that proffesional pilots can land properly. 

How many times has this happenned now?  I've heard of it happening in South America, the UK, either Sweden/Switzerland/Netherlands, and a couple times in the US.

I just feel bad for the pilots

That's crazy. I would have though that it was pretty obvious where he was landing. I admit though he was pretty smart to get a 757 down the middle of a taxiway!

How could there be no other crew on board except the co-pilot? Is it just a free for all aft of the cockpit on Continental Airlines?

Oh, dear...
I'm scheduled to fly Continental out of KEWR tomorrow (ERJ145 to KBUF).; returning Thursday afternoon. Anybody got a spare set of rosary beads?


Eh, what the heck... they'll all be on their best behavior after this one... and landing an RJ on a KEWR taxiway is probably a snap... 

Humans make mistakes.  Even very well trained, very experienced humans.  So long as humans are in the loop mistakes like this will happen.

I bet this guy's made hundreds of perfectly safe, text book landings, so his ability to land a plane safely shouldn't be in question.  It's the human error factor that caused this incident.

Glad nobody was hurt.

Quote:

This might be the incident you mentioned in the UK. http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19931020-0&lang=en There was a similar incident in April 1988 involving a BAC 111 of BIA. I believe this was from the opposite direction & involved a training captain who lost his job as a result.
To be fair, Gatwick has two parallel runways 08R/26L & 08L/26R but they are too close together for simultaneous use. The shorter one (08L/26R) is used only when the main runway is closed for maintenance or in an emergency. When I was working at Gatwick I heard of several instances of approaches being made, either at night or in bad conditions, on the well-lit A23 road running alongside the airport. (I'm not sure if this has since been changed during expansion of the airport.)

Gatwick Airport showing 26L in use with 26R unlit & Taxiway 2 to the right of it.