Originally Posted by
Telstar
The Hawk I want to know the same thing. The Americans have got to accept that there R/T standards are apalling and are contributing to accidents, without taking it as a slight on their nationalistic pride. This is not about Europe Vs. the US. It is a flight safety issue.
I will forever wonder that if the controller had prefixed the takeoff clearance with the runway in use and the crew had readback the full clearance including the runway prefix a light bulb may have gone off in someones head.
I think the final hole in the swiss cheese lining up could have been prevented by proper phraseology like this:
TWR: Cleared for takeoff Runway 22
Comair: Cleared for takeoff Runway 26
TWR: STOP! Wrong runway!
I think the general consensus is they believed they
were on 22 all the time. Unlikely then that any amount of additional verbiage would have corrected that fundamental error. In your scenario they surely would simply have replied "cleared takeoff 22" and continued down 26.