By Utibe Inyang
On October 28, 2006, Continental Airlines Flight 1883 mistakenly landed on a taxiway instead of a runway at Newark Liberty International Airport. This was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight to Newark from Orlando International Airport. The flight was operated using a Boeing 757-224 (Reg. No. N17105) and had 148 passengers and 6 crew on board. Approaching Newark, flight 1883 was initially instructed to land on runway 22L using an ILS approach. As the aircraft descended below 8,000 ft (2,440 m), the Pilots were again instructed to circle towards the west, followed by a low-altitude right turn to line up with runway 29 for landing. It was going to be the first time the co-pilot of flight 1883 had performed an approach on runway 29 at Newark. The Pilots followed the instructions, and upon taking the final right turn, they observed four white path indicator lights (PAPI), which they believed were located to the left of the runway. This, in fact, was an incorrect determination as the Pilots had mistakenly identified taxiway Z as runway 29 (located in parallel) Keeping the indicator lights to their left, the pilots landed on taxiway Z at 18:31 EDT and was guided by ground controller to the gate without further incident. All passengers and crew were safely deplaned.
NTSB and FAA reports revealed that runway 29 centerline lights (white) and taxiway Z centerline lights (green) were completely lit and distinguishable at the time of the incident. However, the taxiway Z centerline lights appeared to be slightly brighter than the HIRL of runway 29. Due to low visibility, it was assumed that the light intensity of taxiway Z may have caused the Pilots to mistakenly land at the taxiway.
Lessons were learned, and recommendations were implemented by FAA.
REFERENCE
wikipedia.org
wikiwand.com
simpleflying.com
