There was another case of pilots mixing up left and right just before Christmas, but the apologetic crew in this case quickly caught their error at JFK before causing anything more than embarrassment for themselves and a discussion with the FAA. As we reported last week, a Volaris Airlines A320 caused TCAS alerts at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston last week when the plane turned right toward a regional airliner taking off on a parallel runway instead of following ATC instructions to turn left for their assigned heading. The incident on the same day (Dec. 18) over New York also involved parallel runways.
The VivaAerobus A321neo was cleared to land on Runway 13 left at JFK, but the crew turned final about a mile early and lined up for 13 right. Although they share the same alignment, those runways are on opposite sides of the airport with the terminal in the middle. As soon as they made the turn to final the Mexican crew knew they’d screwed up and called a go-around just as the tower controller told a Turkish Airlines cleared to line up and wait on the runway to stop. “Go around VIVA 100, sorry,” the VivaAerobus crew said as they hit the power. They strayed off the runway heading ordered by the controller and flew directly to the terminal before getting set up for another shot at the correct runway. The various controllers on the second try emphasized they were heading for 13 left and they landed uneventfully. The VivaAerobus crew apologized twice more before they got to the gate and were given a number to call to discuss the deviation with FAA officials.
Technology, language, ESL and busy voice communications…
That’s an interesting approach. You fly the guidance to a certain point and then pick up the lead-in lights to the runway. As I recall, the lights start together and then diverge to the two runways. If you’re not familiar with the area, you might just grab the first lights you see, which would take you to 13R.
Pilots are human. They recognized their mistake before it became a serious problem. They probably won’t make the same mistake again, but you can be sure that somebody else will.