PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Thomson 737 lands on taxiway at Paphos?
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Old 10th Oct 2011, 02:35
  #153 (permalink)  
vespasia
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
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You'd love to think that r/w lights on at all times would be possible, but I'm sure the beancounters would kill that idea in no time.

In the Gatwick Air Malta incident (at night) the runway and taxiway lighting was all displayed correctly and the crew still landed on the taxiway. Changes were subsequently made so that no taxiway lights are now visible when landing on the northern runway i.e. at night you can't see there's a taxiway there until after you vacate.

The idea of adding r/w markings to the taxiway also sounds good, but creates a 2nd runway with all of the regulations and procedures that have to go with it - again, expensive, and doesn't necessarily remove the problem. If LCPH had a 29L would that really stop an aircraft landing on it instead of 29R since now the only difference is the runway numbers?

The best hope for preventing this kind of thing is to understand why the crew made the error (whether through fatigue/poor visual cues or any of the other factors already mentioned) and I hope the investigation approaches the incident in such a way as to make that possible.
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