Boeing DC-9-82 N298AA

Summary

On 15 March 2003 at about 00:20 local time, a Boeing DC-9-82 registered N298AA was involved in an incident near Seattle, Washington, United States. 111 people were on board and nobody was injured. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

15 March 2003 at 00:20

Classification

Incident

Location

Seattle, Washington, United States

Nearest airport

Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA)

Coordinates

47.4489, -122.3094

Aircraft

Boeing DC-9-82

Registration

N298AA

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Dallas-Ft Worth → Seattle

Aircraft damage

Not recorded

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA03IA046

Nobody was injured.

The flight crew's misidentification of the parallel taxiway as the active runway, resulting in the flight crew executing a landing on the taxiway. Factors include sunglare from the wet paved surfaces, and a visual illusion created by the airport surface environment.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

Initially the flight crew planned to execute the visual approach to Runway 16 Right backed up by the ILS, but because there was a ceiling over the final approach course, they were advised to expect the ILS. The flight was then vectored to a 15 mile final and cleared for the ILS approach. About four to five miles from the end of the runway, at about 3,500 feet above the ground (AGL), the flight crew passed through the cloud deck, made visual contact with the runway environment, and transitioned to visual navigation. According to the information collected from the flight data recorder, the aircraft started a constant-rate deviation to the right of the localizer approximately the same time as it broke out of the clouds. During this deviation the flight crew maintained a heading that was taking them directly to the "approach end" of Taxiway Charlie. Neither the Captain nor the First Officer were aware they were lined up on the taxiway, and they did not know they had landed on the taxiway until advised by the tower. A rain shower had recently moved through the area, and although there was an overcast over the center and north end of the airport, south of the field rays of sunlight were shining through holes in the clouds, resulting in a degradation of the visual clues that would normally help the flight crew differentiate between the runway and the taxiway.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.