Voice from the Noise: Safe – No one knows why

700 On the Move

Vs-31 CAG Aircraft 700 is shot down the cat of the USS GW Washington, circa 2006. VS-31's final deployment before being decommissioned was onboard the USS Washington. The NG on the tail is the give away. Airwings attached to West coast aircraft Carriers are assigned the lead nemonic of "N" while those on the Atlantic are given "A". The 700 or double nuts aircraft in each aircraft is typically given special paint over and above that customary for a squadron aircraft and is usually offered to the Air Wing Commander. This aircraft is sporting an AWW-13 Weapons Data Link pod on that starboard wing pylon. This pod us used to relay video from an inflight missile (Maverick or SLAM-ER) or controls from the aircraft to the missile. There is an actual joystick at the Co-Pilot station that allows the operator at that station to actually fly the missle while it is in flight.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Safe – No one knows why

This is bad, could have been way worse. The Mother of All Runway Excursions

From Aero-News Network:

The FAA and NTSB are investigating how a Delta Boeing 767 from Rio de Janeiro wound up landing on a taxiway, rather than on Runway 27R at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

… according to preliminary information received from several sources, on Monday October 19, 2009 at 0605 EDT, a Boeing B767-332ER operating as Delta Air Lines flight 60 from Rio de Janeiro landed on taxiway 'M' at ATL after being cleared to land on runway 27R. No injuries to any of the 182 passengers or 11 crewmembers were reported.

I don't profess to know what goes on in the cockpit but usually smart people are at the controls. How you lose your place and get on a taxi way is beyond me, but I don't sit in the front seats when I fly. I take it on faith that the two holding those seats have the notion of the difference between a runway and a taxi way. Maybe they were tired (that's a 9 ½ hour flight) or distracted; they did call in a medical emergency very close to being cleared to land, so anything could have happened. The scary part is that this taxiway is situated near the center of the airport complex between the runway and all 7 terminals of the Hartsfield complex.

I used to travel a lot on Delta, having to work in Jacksonville FL or San Diego CA and NOT wanting to fly on an Airbus aircraft, Delta was the only option. I know from going in and out of ATL to JAX or SAN that this crew was very lucky there was not another aircraft on that taxi way. It could have been a real mess had a Jumbo been working its way to the departure end of 27R using taxiway 'M'.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

2 comments:

Buck said...: I used to LOVE to fly back in the day. But I dread it now, and you're only adding to that dread, Jimmy. I'm seriously entertaining flying out to spend the holidays with SN2... but first I have to overcome this somewhat irrational fear. But, then again, maybe not so irrational after all: The Law of Diminishing Returns, and all that.; October 22, 2009 at 1:35 PM
JimmyT said...: Buck, more trouble in the sky's, don't read my next post!!! LOL!! I still think it is the safest way to travel around.

BT: Jimmy T sends.; October 22, 2009 at 1:54 PM