JAL airplane accelerates on taxiway to take off

[Foreigner]

Bizarre incident at SIN:

JAL jet mistakenly accelerated on taxiway at Singapore airport | The Japan Times

 

[samh004]

JAL suspended the two from working aboard aircraft and is considering punishing them, the company said, adding that the pilots did not think the incident was something worth reporting.

Sounds more like they didn't want to get in trouble and ended up in more trouble because of it.

 

[jb747]

Perhaps surprising, but this sort of incident isn't uncommon. A likely set up for it happens when you have two parallel taxiways adjacent to a runway. The aircraft heads out to the runway on the taxiway furthest from the runway, and then when it turns, aligns with the next taxiway instead of the runway. Couple it with poor visibility and it can easily happen.

I can recall another event like this fairly recently at Hong Kong. A google search finds many examples...many of which completed the take off.

 

[QF029]

Does it concern you JB that the pilots didn't report the incident?

 

[jb747]

Does it concern you JB that the pilots didn't report the incident?

Probably surprise more than anything else. Given that aircraft record and report automatically many events, ATC report everything unusual, etc, nothing is likely to stay hidden. In the culture that I know, it's always best to 'fess up to anything before your boss finds out via other sources...and he always will. But, our culture is a 'reporting' culture, in which errors are not punished. Blame is not a feature...the aim is to prevent a repeat.

I expect this event, and the lack of reporting, is a direct result of an aviation culture in which blame must be assigned...and that kills self reporting.

 

[dajop]

Not underplaying the seriousness of trying to take off on a taxiway, is there not a difference between a closed runway with construction equipment on it and open taxiway?

 

[jb747]

Not underplaying the seriousness of trying to take off on a taxiway, is there not a difference between a closed runway with construction equipment on it and open taxiway?

Whilst I wouldn't have picked the Singair accident as an example, it was caused by the same failure of situational awareness. Closed runway or taxiway, there are innumerable clues that you're in the wrong place, but, as we see, they are overlooked time and time again. A take off on a taxiway has a very high chance of running into another aircraft...runways are at least normally only occupied by one aircraft. Of course that reminds me of the KLM/Pan Am collision, and again, it's a similar chain of events.