We can keep "shampoo bombs" out of hand luggage but we can't

[yellowcanine]

keep a plane from taking off on the wrong runway? Does anyone else think this is an outrageous example of incompetence by the people charged with protecting the safety of the public, in this case, the FAA?

[kentuck]

1. A good point....

to make. Can't see the forest for the trees, I guess?

[Ian David]

2. Shut-up. You'll only embolden the Air Traffic Controllers. n/t

:sarcasm:

[Richardo]

3. .

:patriot: + :rofl:

[lonestarnot]

5. There was only one. Not hard to play the blame game there I guess.

But I got that noose flash from an unreliable source, so don't take it to the bank.

[soothsayer]

4. poor pilot's family has to live with that awful mistake

[yellowcanine]

6. Point is it shouldn't just be the pilot. Pilots get clearance to take off

from the tower. The tower should never have given the clearance. There should be a system in place which tells the tower and the pilot that the plane is on the wrong runway. Bells should go off, alarms should sound, if a plane is lining up on a runway that is too short. A couple of hundred dollars worth of electronic sensors could prevent that kind of mistake.

[pimpbot]

8. Well, for starters their compass would have shown they were pointed wrong

Pilot, Co-pilot and ATC guy all missed something that morning. The copilot survived, unfortunately hes going to have to live with this the rest of his life.

[yellowcanine]

10. A few electronic sensors could reduce the chance of human error.

How difficult would it be to have sensors which would trigger an alarm if a plane is preparing to take off on an inappropriate runway? Actually I am surprised if there is not such a system installed already at all airports that handle commercial planes. Was it turned off for some reason? It could even be done with the ground radar system.

[purduejake]

7. Have you ever caused an accident?

This sounds like a STUPID mistake, but unfortunately we'll have human error. Obviously we do need to always continue toward better safety, but there really are sooooo many things in place to prevent these things.

For example, you should have the airport diagram w/ runway lengths in front of you if you are unfamiliar with the airport. You know how long of a runway you need for your aircraft with specific weights - and how much runway you need if one engine fails. These calculations are always made for commercial flights. Also the runways are numbered and you should always check your heading indicator to make sure it matches.

It'll be interesting to see what in the heck lead to this.

[yellowcanine]

11. The point is that electronic systems should have prevented this - The FAA

should be making sure that all airports are equipped with and using systems which will sound an alarm to the pilot and the tower if a plane is taking off on the wrong runway. Of course we will have human error. That is why highways and airports are supposed to be designed to account for human error and minimize its potential effects.

[calico1]

9. I hope the co pilot can recover

from his injuries and shed some light on why this happened. The whole thing seems so bizarre to me. It's not like they were at JFK or O'Hare. I'll be interested to see what information comes out.