Posted on 03/21/2025 5:39:59 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
A Southwest Airlines flight almost took off from a taxiway — rather than a runway — at a central Florida airport on Thursday before an air traffic controller stopped the plane, officials said. No injuries were reported, and passengers departing Orlando International Airport were accommodated on another aircraft heading to their destination of Albany, New York, the airline said in a statement. The aircraft was switched to help facilitate an investigation.
Southwest Flight 3278 had been cleared for takeoff and initiated a takeoff roll on a taxiway after the crew mistook the surface for the nearby runway, officials said. But air traffic controllers canceled the clearance before the plane could take off.
Taxiways are routes used by planes to move on the ground between gates, hangars and runways. Runways are the long, usually paved, areas of airports specifically meant for takeoffs and landings.
Southwest is working with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees,” the airline said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
ping
It wasn’t very long, but it was a mile wide!......................
AVIATION PING!......................
eeeks, hate when this happens.
I landed on a taxiway, Salt Lake City a long time ago. It was after hours, and I couldn’t get the runway lights to turn on (should be a set amount of microphone clicks).
G/A aircraft don’t care much about landing on taxiways vs runways.
Nothing is more important to Southwest than Safety.
Crew mistook the surface for the nearby runway.
Yeah, pretty hard to do if you have any time at the stick, unless you are DEI or drunk.
Nope. We used the taxiway as runway a couple of times when the runway was being resurfaced.
Night flights restricted.
Um, fire the pilots and crew immediately and prevent them from every piloting again.
Rita! Put down your makeup mirror and watch where you’re going.
Maybe ground control directed pilot onto the wrong position of the airport runways.
Inadequate taxiway/runway signage, again? It contributed to the recent Midway incident in Chicago.
Harrison Ford - ONE of his near mishaps..close to the one where he landed at a golf course in L.A. I always thought his ticket should have been pulled but I guess it never was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkaUsub9258
Looks like his Cessna Citation has been on the ground for awhile and it’s probably a good place for it.
https://celebrityprivatejettracker.com/harrison-ford-n6gu/
“Expect more of these as the airline industry hires less qualified pilots.”
I disagree. I predict this new administration will change how pilots are hired...IF RFK Jr gets off his backside and pursues immediate action to both reject & reverse the effects of covid era insanity.
But I digress:
So, then...
The ‘true pandemic’ has finally taken hold of civil aviation.
Expect more of this as ‘dei disintegration’ violently pulls back the curtain and prompts an industry-wide review. The prelim report on the Delta crash should have been a glaring warning (if not other incidents before it).
But “Trump is the one endangering aviation,” ‘they’ say. /s
Great heads-up by ATC in the tower!
Just like some people in cars - Do not want to get in line and wait their turn.
Yes they must be both DEI and drunk.
The pilot, is she ok?
No way. The pilot is 100% responsible to make sure he knows where he is at!
The crew in the back had nothing to do with it.
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