757 Lands on Taxiway at EWR & Pilots Bolt

[Pat Fabin]

Just gives more kindling for my "CAL SUX" fire.

 

[Big Slick]

Sounds like these guys were pretty darn good - landing a 757 on a 70' wide taxiway.

It's called: "Using your superior piloting abilities to make up for a total lack of situational awareness."

Personally, I'm impressed.

 

[humuakalaka]

I'm really not very familiar with EWR, however, I suppose it's possible that if they were confused enough to land on the taxiway they may have been confused enough to not even realize they landed on the taxiway esp if they are unlit as other folks here have described. Goodness knows I've screwed up before and not realized until later or until someone pointed it out.

 

[SFR]

Just to throw it out there:

The captain was not a scab and the FO was hired pre 9/11/01.

How it happened???? Beyond me?

 

[Amish RakeFight]

And CO hasn't called to interview me???

Why, have you mastered the art of landing aircraft on narrow taxiways?





.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

Not exusing what happened, but EWR doesn't have any taxiway edge lighting. I don't think there are any other major US airports that can say that (but I'm not positive).

Combine that with a relatively challenging circling approach and I can certainly see how it could happen.

This is true, yet every runway I've landed on at night had runway edge lights. They could have at least informed tower that the "runway lights" were OTS.

 

[cjdriver]

This is true, yet every runway I've landed on at night had runway edge lights. They could have at least informed tower that the "runway lights" were OTS.

Glad someone mentioned that. I was wondering if it was just me that didn't see the reasoning behind that comment. In fact, if it's not lighted, how did he even see it to land on it?

 

[ground stop]

so, they landed but didn't tell anyone? the only evidence was skidmarks on the taxiway? i wouldn't hang 'em just yet.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

so, they landed but didn't tell anyone? the only evidence was skidmarks on the taxiway? i wouldn't hang 'em just yet.

I hate to speculate but I'm going to guess that at some point during the flare or crossing the "threshold" that they realized they made a boo boo. Those dang lights on the wings and nose gear have a way of lighting a narrow taxiway up. I don't doubt that they hoped no one would notice. But of course as this is speculation, maybe they BOTH didn't notice this. Hard to imagine though.

 

[TurboS7]

Recurrent has been full of taxiway markings and hold short lines and powerpoint presentations about runway incursions. Now it is going to be about what a runway looks like.

 

[radar_contact]

How did we get here, already?

I'll bet they got that sinking feeling when they went to taxi clear of the "runway".....

 

[jbvt]

Even better than that is the ILS 11 circle 29...stay over the Runway 4 at 1000' .... they call your base, chop and drop, and it looks more like a 172 pattern than a jet. You better be configured over the numbers or you will never make it.

whose not configured over the #'s

 

[Tejas-Jet]

Who cares, no blood no foul. It's not like this is the first time its ever happened. US Air (737) landed on the taxiway in DTW a few years back.

Yeah...and a week after the CAL BK and pilot strike in 1983, a scab crew on a CAL DC-9 landed on a taxiway in DEN....with frank lorenzo aboard.

Tejas

 

[zonker]

Glad someone mentioned that. I was wondering if it was just me that didn't see the reasoning behind that comment. In fact, if it's not lighted, how did he even see it to land on it?

I suppose that will come out later. They were confused from the beginning, obviously.

There are many factors that lead to something like this and the lack of edge lighting on the taxiway is just one of them.

 

[Fearless Tower]

Who cares, no blood no foul. It's not like this is the first time its ever happened. US Air (737) landed on the taxiway in DTW a few years back.

Happens at SEA on a regular basis.