Originally Posted by
Old Carthusian
Certainly learning from the incident - why it happened is important. I would not deny that. However, what Ian W and Darkbarly miss I think is that any organisation needs to set limits. Things which cannot be accepted no matter what the excuse. Now I would submit that trying to land on a taxiway which is clearly marked with different coloured lights is one of those things. It is basic to being a professional isn't it?
Organisations do set limits. The limit, in a modern airline with a Just Culture, is along the lines of wilful violations, gross negligence, and destructive acts. If an incident occurs due to a genuine mistake then dismissal is generally counter productive because all it does is foster a "cover it up" culture among the work force.
Trying to land on a taxiway is what happened. In order to determine whether the crew should be punished in some way, you need to find out why it happened.
If it turns out the crew said to each other, "hey look, there are four jets on C, lets give them a dust up!" Then absolutely, you fire them. If, on the other hand, they thought they were on 28R until it all clicked and they did the go-around, then no, you don't fire them. You try and find out what set of circumstances led them down the garden path, then you pass that information on to all the other pilots and airlines around the world in the hope we can learn something from it. If there is a procedure that can be changed to help prevent it happening again, then you consider changing it (I'm not a fan of changing procedures in response to a single incident unless there is evidence that similar incidents are likely to occur.)