Delta jet lands on taxiway at ATL
Delta Jet Lands On Taxiway At Hartsfield Date: 10/20/2009 9:54:01 PM
ATLANTA -- A Delta Air Lines flight from South America, landing at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport early Monday morning ended up landing on a taxiway instead of a runway -- a situation that could have been disastrous.
Delta flight 60, a Boeing 767 operating nonstop from Rio de Janeiro to Atlanta with 194 passengers and crew onboard was approaching Hartsfield Jackson on Monday morning at 6:05 after a near ten hour flight from Brazil.
The FAA says the captain declared a medical emergency with a sick person onboard. He was cleared to land on Hartsfield's runway 27 Right.
Then the bizarre occurred.
Despite white lights along the runway and lights to guide the pilot and the aircraft to the active runway, the plane touched down on the adjacent taxiway, the route planes use to slowly get to the runways and wait in line. It is lit with blue lights.
The FAA says the aircraft completed a full landing roll on the taxiway, and then made a turn off the taxiway to the terminals.
The FAA says because of the early hour no planes were on the taxiway when Flight 60 touched down. The FAA adds that to their knowledge, no aircraft as ever landed on a Hartsfield taxiway before.
Delta says both the captain and first officer of Flight 60 have been relieved of duty, with pay, pending a full investigation.
No injuries were reported.
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