Anyone know if there's any kind of GPS software, or some kind of beacon signal that would've alerted the crew to the fact that they were on the wrong runway?
CNn breaking news email:
-- Flight 5191 took off from a short runway not typically used by commercial jets before it crashed, killing 49, an NTSB spokeswoman said.
Not necessary. Visual guidance, with confirmation from the aircraft's heading indicators, should be sufficient.
It could be done, but I doubt it has been. I would think they'd have relative GPS, with a ground based reference GPS unit sending corrections to sets nearby. That would get you enough accuracy to be able to tell, reliably, which runway you were on, if you also had a digital map of the runways, in GPS coordinates. Still I doubt anyone has written any software, which would also have to know which runway you are supposed to be on, to provide an alarm.
Why wouldn't the air traffic controller tell them they were going down the wrong runway??