The number of wrong surface departures, in which an airplane takes off from the wrong runway or a taxiway, and wrong surface events on approach and landing, in which an airplane lines up on and/or lands on the wrong surface, represent a growing concern in safety circles.
According to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), there were 331 wrong surface departures and 330 wrong surface events during the approach and landing phases of flight at U.S. airports in fiscal year 2016. That’s nearly two wrong surface operations per day, according to the July/August 2018 FAA Safety Briefing, which also said the events are happening at both large and small airports.
The most publicized recent event occurred in July 2017 when an Air Canada Airbus A320 on a nighttime approach to San Francisco International Airport lined up with an occupied taxiway instead of the adjacent parallel runway. Air Canada Flight 759 descended below 100 ft above the ground before the crew initiated a …
