Originally Posted by
Ian W
The difference between your claim and mine is that professional crews repeatedly land on taxiways. It is not uncommon. What these incidents have in common is that each crew were convinced they were landing on the runway they were cleared to land on.
The way flight safety works is not to crucify each crew with the hope of 'encourager les autres'; it is to examine each incident and try to find why these landings (and in some cases take offs) on taxiways takes place. Then attempt to prevent that happening. Human factors research shows that attentional (aka cognitive) tunneling is one reason, that is then supported by confirmation bias. The same research shows that once an individual has been shown what can happen in their heads then they are less likely to have the same tunneling. Note that is less likely not impossible.
Trying to pretend that it is just that particular crew will. inevitably, only lead to another crew perhaps actually landing on a taxiway with several widebodies queued on it. Identifying what the reason was for misidentification and finding a method of mitigating it is far more productive; and is the way flight safety has been improved in the past.
You reinforce my point by continuing to pursue the same line relentlessly and regardless what the other person actually said.
While you are busy saying what you always expected to say anyway (and hence land on the taxiway) you miss my point and the runway entirely.
I never said crucify the crew.
What I said is that the human brain is so complex and on margin unpredictable, that we should do everything we can to remove the human brain from the equation, before accepting defeat and accommodating it.
And that history dictates regardless what you and I discuss, over a slightly longer arc, this approach to safety is completely inevitable anyway.