An Alaska Airlines passenger jet landed on Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s central taxiway – not the runway – on Dec. 19, the fourth time a pilot has made the error in the history of the airport.
Nobody was hurt in the 8:33 a.m. incident, and the Boeing 737-900, Flight 27 from Chicago, brought all passengers to the terminal without issue.
“It landed safely and taxied to the gate,” said Port of Seattle spokesman Perry Cooper. “Most likely the passengers on board had no idea they landed on a taxiway.”
Both Alaska Airlines (NYSE: ALK) and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the incident, but neither spokesmen for the organizations would elaborate on what happened or whether any actions, if any, have been taken since.
Taxiways are essentially roads that pilots use to drive aircraft between the terminal and their points for takeoff and landing. Some Sea-Tac taxiways cross the runways, while others, such as the one taxiway where Flight 27 landed, run parallel to the runways.
Landing on a taxiway is dangerous. It could cause a collision with aircraft already on the taxiway or about to cross it.
The taxiway crossings have the equivalent of stop signs, and aircraft can’t proceed without an OK from air traffic controllers, but if a plane were already half-way across when another was coming in to land, it could result in a collision.
The Dec. 19 incident happened just days after workers finished paving Sea-Tac’s central runway, which may have led to the pilot’s confusion.
The runway and taxiway are the same length – about 9,400 feet – and are only 600 feet apart. The newly paved center runway would not yet have accumulated the dark tire marks characteristic of a heavily used runway, and so the light-colored concrete may have looked similar on both.
The weather was clear on Dec. 19, so the pilot might have been using a visual approach as opposed to using instruments, Cooper said, but he was not sure that was the case.
Pilot mistakes over Sea-Tac’s center taxiway, called “Tango” in aircraft control lingo, have caused years of debate between the National Transportation Safety Board, Sea-Tac officials and the FAA, according to a 2005 Seattle Times story.
“This is a pretty rare thing. These are very well marked,” Cooper said. “There’s a real distinction between taxiway and runway because of markings.”
But some of the complications are caused by the fact that pilots often approach from the north, which means that the surface can be obscured from sunlight from the south. In addition, when the runway is wet – as it often is in rainy Seattle – any runway markings can be hard to see.
The last time a jet actually landed on the taxiway– and the pilot didn’t pull up just before landing after realizing his or her mistake – was in 2004, when a propeller-driven Dash 8, flown by Air Canada unit Jazz landed with 32 passengers on board. No one was injured, but the NTSB investigated and recommended the airport mark the taxiway with a giant “T” so pilots could see it when they came in for a landing.
Since then the airport has added a third runway, which changed the NTSB’s assessment.
Puget Sound Business Journal
Alaska Airlines to phase out -400QC fleet by 2017
In 2017, Alaska Airlines will phase out its five Boeing 737-400 “combi” planes that move cargo and passengers primarily around Alaska.
The five combi planes have flown around the state — Seattle is the only stop they make Outside — since 2007. Each has space for 72 passengers in the back half of the plane and 6,000 pounds of cargo in the front. These planes were introduced to the fleet to replace several 737-200s, offering the ability to carry 20 percent more cargo and passengers.
They will be replaced with three Boeing 737-700s, which will be converted from all-passenger planes to freighters. It’s part of a broader plan to phase out all 26 of the 737-400s in the Alaska Airlines fleet and move toward more fuel-efficient planes.
The work to retrofit those three 700s will start in February. The change is meant to improve the airline’s cargo service in Alaska.
“It will allow us to offer a cargo schedule that better serves the cargo needs of the communities we serve in the state of Alaska,” said spokeswoman Halley Knigge.
She said, however, that the change isn’t driven by heightened demand for air cargo services within the state.
Alaska Airlines Senior Vice President of Communications Joe Sprague told the Associated Press earlier this year that the move is “an opportunity for us to step up our game from a cargo standpoint.”
These flights currently operate among Anchorage, Ketchikan, Kotzebue, Bethel, Juneau, Sitka, Nome and Seattle. Combi flights between cities in the southern part of the state are more frequent than those to cities like Kotzebue and Nome.
Knigge said because the transition is still far off, it’s not yet clear how schedules and passenger service might be affected.
Alaska Dispatch News
Alaska Airlines takes “upcycling” to new heights!
It’s a challenge for airlines to create a sustainable image when their very lifeblood contributes enormous amounts of jet fuel to the environment. But Alaska Airlines is thinking out of the box—and seat—when it comes to sustainability by embracing upcycling.
When the carrier reupholstered 6,000 seats on its Boeing 737-800 and -900 planes with Recaro seats fitted with power outlets in every seat, they took all that leather or synthetic material estimated at 18,000 pounds and gave it away to be upcycled. Distributed to 11 organizations ranging from a prison to the Boy Scouts, several creative designers turned the former seats into upscale fashion collections.
Canada’s MariClaRo leveraged its experience turning materials from Air Canada planes into new products by repurposing Alaska Airlines’ blue and grey leather into the Atlas Collection including satchels, tote bags and wallets.
“The material is perfect for this project—the high-quality airplane leather seat covers are made to last,” said Sven Schlegel, who co-founded MariClaR, which is based in the province of Ontario. “One of our basic missions is to show that you can turn waste materials declared for the landfill into designs that look sleek and last forever—guaranteed for another million miles!”
Owning and wearing a piece of Alaska Airlines history—or Air Canada’s, for that matter—takes time. Each MariClaRo order is customized and takes up to five weeks to create and deliver.
“It’s very exciting to see someone developing a grassroots business from something that we were just going to throw away,” commented Pete Roberts, program manager in Alaska’s maintenance and engineering department, in a blog post.
Greg Mays, Alaska’s VP maintenance and engineering added that, “By partnering with these innovative designers, we’re not only diverting waste from local landfills, but we’re giving people a chance to own a piece of Alaska’s history. It’s not often that people can own a bag that has already traveled more miles than they have.”
Proving it has sustainability in the bag, Alaska is the only US domestic carrier that handles “mixed recyclables”—glass, paper, plastic and aluminum—on every flight. As a result, it has reduced waste by more than 50 percent per passenger since 2010, saving nearly 2,900 tons of recyclables otherwise destined for landfill.
Brand Channel
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