EUROCONTROL’s Preventing Runway Incursions Portal has a quiz designed to test the knowledge of pilots, air traffic controllers and vehicle drivers about, among others, the runway and taxiway environment. One of the questions shows a concrete surface with white markings in a limited visibility environment, seen from the cockpit window. The question: are we on a taxiway or on a runway? Another question shows a similar picture but with yellow markings on the concrete. Same question: are we on a runway or taxiway. Well, I am sure our readers will not have a problem answering something this simple. The white markings are on the runway, right? Are you sure? A large proportion of those we tried the quiz on did fail this simple test!
I was reminded of this fact when news reached us of yet another scheduled flight taking of from a parallel taxiway. This time it was an Aeroflot Airbus A320-200, VP-BWM performing Flight SU 212 from Oslo to Moscow.
The aircraft was cleared to take off from Runway 01L. It took a wrong turn onto taxiway N which runs parallel with the runway and took off from there. The taxiway is 3700 meters long. There was no other aircraft or ground vehicle on the taxiway, so the aircraft was able to take off and climb out without further incident.
So, Delta lands on a taxiway in Atlanta, KLM takes off from one in Amsterdam and now Aeroflot does the same in Oslo. These are not spurious incidents. Obviously there is something wrong in the system. Ground navigation errors have occurred also in the past, some resulting in serious runway incursions, but not recognizing the fact that you are on a taxiway before starting the take-off roll seems to indicate a problem that goes much deeper.
One that needs immediate attention from all concerned.