Originally Posted by
jondc9
CJ
the tower would have seen an airplane with its landing lights on in the middle of a runway which had its edge lights off, extinguished, out, not lit.
If the clearance was a bit early and the tower looked out at that point they might have seen a plane on the taxiway just before 26 and thought yup they are enroute to the end of 22. The fact that the lights were out on 26 might have helped reinforce that view. A few seconds later and they would have seen the plane turn into 26. The early clearance may also have contributed to the crews idea they had arrived at 22.