The flight crews of two Virgin Australia Boeing 737s misinterpreted a notice to airmen (NOTAM) for Darwin (Northern Territory, Australia) Airport, and, mistakenly believing there was a displaced threshold on their landing runway, touched down about 1,000 m (3,281 ft) beyond the threshold, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) says.
The occurrences, on Sept. 3, and Sept. 19, 2021, involved two different crews who read the NOTAM that said the Runway 290 threshold was displaced by 765 m (2,510 ft) and interpreted it as saying that the displaced threshold was on the opposite-direction Runway 11. The NOTAM also said that, because of work on the runway, the available landing distance was reduced to 2,670 m (8,760 ft).
No one was injured in either incident, and neither airplane was damaged.
“On both occasions, the flight crews misinterpreted the NOTAM and conducted unnecessary displaced threshold landings, reducing the available runway for their landings,” the ATSB said.
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