Originally Posted by
hans brinker
And there is no typical airliner liftoff speed.
I’m pretty sure the journalist was just trying to give the reader some general idea of the speed involved. “How fast are we going at takeoff/landing?” is a fairly common question. 160kt is a reasonable enough answer without getting into a lesson on runway performance.
Regarding the incident, my airline has had crews misread performance data for 01 and 10 at SFO. I assume it’s got to do with the way our brain processes information. You’re much more likely to confuse 01 and 10 than 08 and 18.
Similar situation with 13/31. Even more so since it’s the same bit of pavement, and your mental picture of the airport may actually add to the confusion. “Did ATC say 13L or 31L?”
Always have to look out for that at JFK, for example.