Comparison of taxiway lighting at a U.S. airport, left, and a Canadian airport.
Both the captain and the first officer (FO) were managing heavy workloads as they turned the Boeing 737 onto the runway in darkness for the departure from Las Vegas, unaware that they had lined up with the right edge of Runway 01R, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) said.
The pilots believed that the bumps they felt during the Feb. 16, 2023, takeoff roll were from rolling over the embedded runway centerline lights, not realizing that the airplane was instead contacting runway edge lights, the TSB said. They continued the flight to Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) International Airport, where — the next day — maintenance personnel noticed that there was minor damage to the right tire on the nose landing gear and replaced both nosewheel tires. Airport personnel at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas noticed damage to eight runway edge lights about 32 hours afte…
