A/C Lands on Taxiway

[BoeingBoy]

I can only imagine that if you are going into a airport at night visually with a last minute runway change, that you hardly have time to pull up a RNAV approach. If that's in fact what happened. First reports I heard said it was at night. I this true?

According to the NTSB preliminary report, the incident happened at 1831 EST, or late afternoon. I think someone else mentioned the possibility of the sun being a possible factor.

Likewise, the preliminary report cites a CO representative as saying that the crew was cleared for the ILS 22L circle to land rwy 29. It doesn't say whether the circle to 29 part was a last minute change or not, but my assumption has been it was not. In my limited experience at EWR (compared to the CO pilots who operate there frequently), it is routine for approach to initially issue the circle clearance when factors favor using runway 29 (as they did that day). I've even had cases when the ATIS said to expect the circle.

Have you ever seen where the taxiway lights are brighter than the adjacent runway? At dim settings the difference between green versus white is not always that
compelling.??

Actually, the opposite is normally true - the runway lights appear to be brighter than the taxiway lights. Probably something to do with the white lights vs blue lights and the way the eye works. However, given the time of day and weather, I doubt the lighting was a factor.

If you're interested, the NTSB's preliminary report is here and the airport taxi diagram is here.

Jim

 

[mistified]

Actually, the opposite is normally true - the runway lights appear to be brighter than the taxiway lights. Probably something to do with the white lights vs blue lights and the way the eye works. However, given the time of day and weather, I doubt the lighting was a factor.
Jim

Normally I would agree. However I have seen the opposite also(taxiway bright runway faint). Don't know if it was dark yet but it must have been close.

Thanks for the link to the report.

 

[Borescope]

Normally I would agree. However I have seen the opposite also(taxiway bright runway faint). Don't know if it was dark yet but it must have been close.

Thanks for the link to the report.

As mentioned in a previous post.....There are no taxi lights (electric) along the runways at EWR. All that are there are poles with blue beflectors on them. So white Vs blue isn't a factor.

However, the lights on the runway could have been turned down and the whole area could have been hard to see.

Bottom line here is we are all being monday morning QB's. The only one who "really" knew what was seen on not, is the pilots in the cp.

I was not the one commenting about the RNAV. That was someone else. I can only imagine that if you are going into a airport at night visually with a last minute runway change, that you hardly have time to pull up a RNAV approach.

Mistified,

I was the one who mentioned the RNAV app. and I agree with you that with a "Last minute runway change" there is not time to pull out the app from the database.

I only mentioned this because someone had stated that there was no app for the runway. Most probably had they been cleared for the RNAV 29 and had time to set it up, the outcome would have been different.