BOEING 737ALASKA AIRLINES INC
Seattle, WA, USA · 2015-12-19·N477AS
What happened
NTSB summary, verbatimThe flight crew inadvertently landed on a taxiway that ran parallel to the intended landing runway. About 5 miles from the runway and having been cleared to land on runway 16R, the tower controller asked if the flight would like to sidestep to runway 16C which had recently opened. The flight crew accepted and visually lined up with taxiway T, instead of the intended landing runway 16C. Although visual meteorological conditions were present, the sun was reflecting off taxiway T resulting in the flight crew visually focusing on it during landing. The flight crew and controller did not recognize the error until after landing.
Photographs
1the aircraft, and what the investigators foundProbable cause
the Board's determinationthe flight crew's misidentification of the taxiway as the landing runway.
Occurrence sequence
1 stepsNTSB coding · CICTT taxonomy- 1 · Landing-flare/touchdownWrong surface or wrong airportdefining event
Findings
1 causal · 1 contributing- CAUSEPersonnel issues › Action/decision › Info processing/decision › Identification/recognition — Flight crew
- FACTOREnvironmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena › Light condition › Glare — Effect on personnel
Sequence of events
3 timed eventsfrom the FDR factual report · claude-sonnet-5- 0824:50 PSTApproachp.2The aircraft turned towards the airport
- 0829:09 PSTApproachp.2The aircraft made a slight course change and lined up with taxiway "T" at SEA
- 0831 PSTLandingp.1The airplane landed on taxiway "T" instead of the intended runway 16C
NTSB analysis
from the final reportThe flight crew inadvertently landed on a taxiway that ran parallel to the intended landing runway. About 5 miles from the runway and having been cleared to land on runway 16R, the tower controller asked if the flight would like to sidestep to runway 16C which had recently opened. The flight crew accepted and visually lined up with taxiway T, instead of the intended landing runway 16C. Although visual meteorological conditions were present, the sun was reflecting off taxiway T resulting in the flight crew visually focusing on it during landing. The flight crew and controller did not recognize the error until after landing.