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Old 1st December 2005 | 20:08
  #11 (permalink)  
A330driver
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Joined: Jun 2005
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From: The Planet Zog
About 20 years ago the main runway (08R/26L) was closed for resurfacing at night and 08L was in use. The surface we now know as 08L/26R was a taxiway until shortly beforehand. It was only upgraded to runway status prior to the works starting and was not generally referred to as a runway. The parallel taxiway (J) had been constructed shortly beforehand as well.

One night, during the works phase, an MD83 (as far as I can recall belonging to British Island Airways) made an approach to Gatwick. They saw a brightly lit runway, assumed it was the main runway - 08(R) which was being resurfaced, and elected to land on the paved surface to the north of it.

A British Airtours 737 taxiing out on J saw the aircraft land on the taxiway ahead of them, the skipper applied a rake of power and taxied up onto the grass away from the oncoming aircraft.

As with a lot of c0ckups, the cockpit crew compliment was not normal - there being a training captain with a poor begger on command checks on board.

And way back then, during my Gatwick days we used to hold at Mayfield VOR.....
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