Incident: Delta Airlines B763 at Atlanta on Oct 19th 2009, landed on taxiway

[mk223]

I just caught this and wanted to share it.

Incident: Delta Airlines B763 at Atlanta on Oct 19th 2009, landed on taxiway

http://avherald.com/h?article=42187f22&opt=0

[sykocus]

Landing on a taxiway at your company's home airport. No bueno.

[atcman23]

Um.. whoops.  Yeah those blue lights indicate taxiways, not Delta's special runway.

But since there was a medical emergency, I have to wonder if the urgency of the situation on board may have contributed to this.

[sykocus]

Um.. whoops.  Yeah those blue lights indicate taxiways, not Delta's special runway.

But since there was a medical emergency, I have to wonder if the urgency of the situation on board may have contributed to this.

Sure, but we're talking about professional pilots on a wide-body international route. Probably not rookies.

[BRAVO2ZERO]

NEED TO HEAR CVR ON THIS LANDING. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN A CATASTROPHY

[atcman23]

Um.. whoops.  Yeah those blue lights indicate taxiways, not Delta's special runway.

But since there was a medical emergency, I have to wonder if the urgency of the situation on board may have contributed to this.

Sure, but we're talking about professional pilots on a wide-body international route. Probably not rookies.

Yeah I know, I think in the end something may have happened while the aircraft was lining up on the approach.  Good thing here is that nobody was hurt (at least relating to the aircraft landing on the taxiway).

[joeyb747]

Here is a news story with a short vid. Pretty strange...

http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=136570&provider=top

[thesirius728]

My first thoughts after hearing that were "What the f***?". I mean seriously, how could this happen? Anyway, I won't speculate anything further, we don't know what happened in detail, but this sounds too crazy to believe 

MOD: Language edited out. Keep in mind we have some younger members who read the forum as well. Thanks.

[phil-s]

Metar, if I read it correctly, said wind calm. Seems like with any significant cross wind this would almost certainly have been a catastrophe. Does the NTSB report for an incident like this always include the CVR transcript?

[Steelrman]

Here is a news story with a short vid. Pretty strange...

http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=136570&provider=top

At the end of the video they say no one was injured on the flight.  No reference to the "medical emergency" patient. I'd like to know how they're doing.  Poor reporting.

[marcoleon]

This could have been very ugly. Check out the traffic on Taxiway M here in the Birdseye view: http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=pm59gy7yz8bc&style=b&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=29077737&encType=1

[jrsx]

This in the archives? Love to hear that conversation

[tyketto]

This in the archives? Love to hear that conversation

If you have a look at the feeds, you will notice that we have no KATL feed.

BL.

[w0x0f]

James Fallows has an interesting take on this story as it relates to the NWA incident at MSP.

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/10/from_an_airbus_captain_and_rec.php

w0x0f

[jmx53]

James Fallows has an interesting take on this story as it relates to the NWA incident at MSP.

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/10/from_an_airbus_captain_and_rec.php

w0x0f

I wonder why none of the other reports about this don't make any mention of the runway change inside the marker like this article does.  Still, it's hard to think 2 trained pilots confused white with blue in 10mi vis when the stakes are so high for being wrong.  The reports say that approach lights and ILS were inactive...What about the REIL strobes on either side of the threshold?