Delta 767 lands on taxiway in Atlanta
On 28-10-2009, in Viewpoint, by cleo
OK, so those Northwest pilots were having a heated argument about company policies (at least that was reported) and they overshot their destination Minneapolis by a cool 150 miles… But what was the crew of the Delta Airlines 767 coming from Rio doing in the early morning of 19 October when they landed on taxiway M at Atlanta Hartsfield? Were they also discussing company policies? Ah this marriage between Northwest and Delta!
Taxiway M is parallel with Runway 27R and the weather conditions were good. 10 miles visibility in night conditions, no wind… The taxiway lights were on as were the runway lights. Apparently the approach lights were not switched on, who knows why? No vehicles or other aircraft were on the taxiway, so nobody was hurt. This time…
Atlanta is Delta’s home and one can assume that it was not the first time the flight crew landed on 27R there. Are statistics catching up with us (the very unlikely will also happen some time…) or are we seeing the results of a systemic problem many like to pretend does not exist?
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