Continental 757 Lands on Taxiway at EWR
 

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10312006...emy_olshan.htm

Note that this was about sunset, directly into the sun on the "cross wind" runway at the North end of the airport. As a SLF having landed at EWR hundreds of times, landing on 29 is rare, and only under extreme wind conditions, as existed on 10/28, with winds over 50 MPH. I would not be surprised if the guys involved had never used this runway. Still no excuse.....

To get this thing down on a 70' taxiway under the conditions that existed is good.

Actually, it the one on the RIGHT. The one on the left is near the terminals and is heavily utilized.

I should think the landing was intended for Rwy 29, at the top of the airport plate.
http://66.226.83.248/aptdiag/FAA/00285AD.gif
Your picture says it's of Rwy 1/19. It probably means 4/22.

What about being a so called human being?
Are you one of the super hero who never does a mistake, or is this only the attribute of the airline pilot :}

Sorry Platinum ..... posted the wrong photo link so deleted .... :ok:

Continental 757 Lands on Taxiway at EWR
 

Did something similar happen to a same carrier's aircraft in december 1983 (but it was heavily snowing at that time)?
It seems to my memory that Frank Lorenzo was in the jump seat of a ship controlled by a brand new non striking captain.
Please FLY SAFELY
DOVES

DOVES, you are correct, it happened going into Stapleton on a DC-9, I think Frankie boy was in the back though.

There was a DC9 which crashed at old DEN in the late '80s; I think it was '87 or '88; however, I believe the taxiway incident was a DC10 at Houston; no damage, although captain and FO subsequently were dismissed.

F4F agreed people do make mistakes, however some are acceptable and some are not; although there were no injuries or loss of life this was a potentially dangerous situation and as such the mistake IMHO is unacceptable.
Am I just being naive here?

With the warning on the bottom of the page, I've decided to withdraw my story. It perhaps suggests I'm human...

Perhaps in this situation it would be more appropriate to request a crosswind runway if available? Obviously this has its drawbacks too, but it's easy to see from both accounts how easy it can be to get the wrong bit of tarmac into sun.

The DC-9 that crashed (COA1713, IIRC) and the DC-9 that landed on a taxiway with Frankie in the back -both- occurred at Stapleton, i.e. two separate deals...

It rather depends on the wind, the aircraft limits and whether an alternative is available. I've landed on 22L in the past on the limits of my aircraft (777) which has a 40kt dry crosswind limit. Given the choice on the day, I'd have gone for 29 but it wasn't available.

We all make mistakes. The principles of threat and error management require us to use all available resources (CRM), but this does not eliminate human error.
Thus, for specific situations the human requires timely warning systems.

In this instance we should consider something like Runway Advisory Awareness System (RAAS).

RAAS like its counterpart EGPWS, alerts crews to their errors just as much as alerting to a specific threat (terrain or landing on an inappropriate runway).
What we humans require is a threat and error detector, i.e EGPWS and RAAS.

Update:
 

Co-pilot flying. Pilot experienced but not necessarily on the 757. A miracle no other planes were taxying at the time not to mention the fact there were no service vehicles out there either.

Crew reportedly realized their mistake after landing and communicated that fact to ATC.

Glad to see nobody got hurt. Mistakes happen. Thr only people who don't make them are people who don't do very much in the first place.

Newarksmells

Well said!!!!!!!:D

Have you ever flown into EWR?

Curious why as there is no published approach for Rwy 29 there was not some heightened awareness that this was to all intents and purposes a non-standard approach. Was a visual approach advisable at at this time of the evening into either darkness or a setting sun? As for the "we all make mistakes" scenario, the only difference between landing on an empty taxiway Z to the North, or a fully loaded taxiway W to the south was manifest by a poorly written piece of sensationalist nonsense in the NY Post versus an all out tragedy of unthinkable proportions. Most people can understand the chain of events that led up to the Kentucky disaster and think of regional jets, small airports, and busy schedules as contributing factors. It is a sobering thought that this event happened to a major Part 121 Carrier at its home base.

There is an approach to 29, it is an RNAV/VNAV aaproach that places you
on a nice stabilized final to 29, it can be accessed from the database on the 757 in question.

Atc, though does not like us using this as it place us too far out on the base leg for their taste, however cutting inside the course is quite feasible ( you have to be visual anyway)

29 is not 'rarely used', it is used quite commonly, especially with strong winds out of the northwest.

Things like this happen to the best. Some simulator training and these guys will be back, albeit humbled. Landing into the setting sun can completely eliminate visual cues like runway markings and rubber deposits. If the runway didn't have an ILS to crosscheck, then the mistake was all but made.

A blessing no one was hurt.
I have no idea what was going on in that flightdeck, so I'll try my best not to pass judgement.

I do find it hard to believe that BOTH flightcrew member missed this one. There is a site on the net that shows the flightpaths onf airplanes on approach into EWR. It looks like the guys actually sidestepped over the Turnpike.

Weird.

I'm happy that the pilots involved in this incident have been grounded and I seriously hope that their licenses will be revoked. No excuse for not paying attention and ignorance.

Worldpilot,
A rather uncharitable view. As you will no doubt have learned in CRM classes, we all make mistakes and the best we can do is mitigate - or reduce - the negative impact of human behaviour. Seems that we are blaming the pilots without having all the facts. Sure enough, they may be grounded but only while the circumstances are investigated.:oh:

It seems we have a judge, jury and executioner .....BUS 429, I seriously doubt this person even knows what CRM is unless it came along with his conversion course on the Cessna 150/172.

The ATPL's daily game:
- Starts with the check-in
- The aim is: To score as few as possible of the 1'001 possible mistakes per flight leg during the day. Of those possible mistakes, check, double check and even triple check those which you sure don't wanna score on (the bad ones)
- Repeat the game on every leg of the day (adding fatigue and routine as a wild card)
- Ends after the check-out

Then go home and ponder how close or how far you did from that ever sooo illusive perfect flight

The ATPL's career:
- To repeat the ATPL's daily game on a daily basis, year after year until retirement or the big mistake catches up with you... good luck to all of us :ok:



FIRESYSOK & Bus 429, thanks!

wileydog3, no sir, only seen the place once, as a PAX

And to all the crawlers, please refrain to judge people while strolling on their lawn :=

worldpilot:

Now that is a bit of a pretentious name for someone who is only rated on the Cessna 150/172.

However, if you have actually flown one of them around the world then we might listen to you!

Hey guys you're too nice with this worldpilot...no CRM for the ennemies of CRM,so IMHO this worldpilot is nothing else but a f****1ng a$$h0le.:yuk: :yuk: :ugh: ..God bless these guys who landed on the taxiway,good luck chaps you might feel very very lonely,but the sun will come back don't worry!:ok: :cool:

Ok since there's a lot of flaming going back and forth here I think we need to remember some things:

1. Despite the danger, thankfully nobody was injured

2. A mistake was made somewhere - yes we all make mistakes but it may be that someone has to take the rap for this in whatever form

3. Given that this mistake has occurred (twice including an account given here), something may need to be done to decrease the likelihood of it happening again - be it for ATC or crew.

/two pennies' worth :)

Well, Worldpilot, I have no desire to break you in mind and body with the sort of sarcastic reply that many will feel that you deserve, but perhaps I could pass on a little gentle advice:
In aviation there are a set of obvious errors that sit on the shoulders of every pilot waiting to bite him hard. They include landing at the wrong airport, taking off on the wrong runway, closing down the wrong engine, landing with the gear not lowered, clipping the undershoot, running off the end of the runway, landing on the wrong runway etc etc etc.
If you are very very lucky you may survive a lifetime of professional flying without ever falling in to one of those traps. That would then be an appropriate time to pontificate in the manner that you have.
In reality most of would remember the time that one did fall in to one of the traps or would have done without the help of the other pilot, flight engineer, air traffic controller etc etc etc.
A gentle sigh and expression of sympathy for someone who had would then be the normal reaction.

Been There, Done That
 

I'm retired now, but early in my career I was an F/E on a B-727 that landed on a taxiway. How's that done? Very easily.
To make a long story short what was supposed to be a visual approach was switched at the last moment to a VOR approach, because we were passing through a squall line. When we broke out we were at minimums, with the "runway" right on the nose; the real runway was not even within peripheral vision. The winds were very strong and gusting (very different from what was being reported) and the the C/P who was flying had his hands full just staying on centerline and keeping from falling out of the sky. The taxiway had recently been repaved and was as wide as most runways. C/P did a very good job of "greasing it on" under extreme wx conditions. It was only when we saw that the high-speed taxiway was at 135 degrees instead of 45 degrees that we realized what we had done. Remember the MD-80 that crashed in Little Rock about June '99? If I remember correctly they encountered windshear right about touchdown, and a headwind of 50 kts switched to a quartering tailwind of about 80 kts, leading to disaster. It's very easy to get so wrapped up in fighting the weather on approach that you miss some "small" item, especially in poor visibility. We had a clear view of the landing roll-out area, so there was no danger. It's very easy to get "sucked in", even for experienced crews. So, please don't be too quick to judge.

one point of interest and possible source of confusion is this...all PAPI's/VASI at newark airport are on the pilot's left while approaching the runway, EXCEPT for runway 29...that runway has the PAPI on the RIGHT.

which would mean that someone expecting the runway to be to the right of the PAPI would land on the taxiway UNLESS they were well briefed on the 29 PAPI position.

while there are other lights to help a pilot find a runway, this papi business should be considered...think about it.

There's an NTSB 'chase plane' animation of the Little Rock accident at;

http://www.ntsb.gov/Events/2000/aa14..._boardmtng.htm

Worldpilot - your arrogance is breathtaking! :yuk:

Looks like a 360 orbit over Virginia - presumably because of delays building due to the high winds that evening....?

I accept that my opinion is this respect is overstressed. I am not saying that Crew resource management (CRM) could not be an issue here. I was just pissed off with the report that the crew just worked away as if nothing happened. Anyway, I hereby withdraw my statement.

I have to say I do have some sympathy for the perpetrators; I doubt that they did this deliberately.

I can only surmise that the picture out the front window looked OK... It's been a while since I used 29 at EWR, so I can't remember what the lighting looked like. It's possible that the runway was (un)lit in a similar way to the taxiway. Remember this is a visual approach - no LOC or VOR radial, etc.

I have noticed that many airports have added potentially confusing lighting details to some runways over recent years, whilst removing those that are fairly unique. It is not unusual to line up on a runway(?) that has:

a) No white CL lighting.
b) Green CL in places for turnoffs.
c) Red stop bars (LAHSO).

Contrast that with a taxiway(?) that has:

a) Areas of missing CL lighting.
b) Green CL for lead-in to entry/exit points.
c) Red stop bars (taxi limit).

At sunset you're especially vulnerable landing to the west, at any airport.

:=:= FLCH. My rating on Cessna 150/172 does not reflect my aviation knowledge. You might be a faculty :mad:, but I'm not. I pretty much have a profound understanding of aviation and the workload involved in the cockpit. Anyway, I've withdrawn my statement.

OK Worldpilot, the Captain of that flight is a good friend of mine, and severely dislike people that shoot first and ask questions later. Please think before posting absolute statements...lest you be jumped by others...

It said sunset 5.58 pm and touchdown 6.31 pm.
At about half an hour after sunset, down to what altitude would they still have had the sun in their eyes?