[El Gato]

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?

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.

[mewzilla]

It wouldn't have to be anything fancy, would it? Maybe each runway could have some kind of beacon set to respond back with a ping IDing which runway the plane was sitting on? Or maybe something keyed to flash the number of the runway when a plane is sitting at the end of it waiting to take off, before the plane begins to move. Someplace a pilot could see out the cockpit window, even in the dark and/or in inclement weather.

[ccmay]

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.

Look for legislators and ambulance chasing lawyers to call for this very thing.

-ccm