Boeing 737 N477AS

Summary

On 19 December 2015 at about 16:31 local time, a Boeing 737 registered N477AS, operated by Alaska Airlines Inc, was involved in an incident near Seattle, Washington, United States. 153 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

19 December 2015 at 16:31

Classification

Incident

Location

Seattle, Washington, United States

Nearest airport

Seattle-Tacoma Intl (SEA)

Coordinates

47.4636, -122.3133

Aircraft

Boeing 737

Registration

N477AS

Category

Airplane

Year built

2015

Engines

2

Operator

Alaska Airlines Inc

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Chicago → Seattle

Aircraft damage

Not recorded

Weather

VMC

Light

Dawn

NTSB number

DCA16IA036

Nobody was injured.

the flight crew's misidentification of the taxiway as the landing runway.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The 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.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.