What Needs To Be Done To Stop Confusion?

Officials at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport have done almost everything they can to prevent pilots from lining up for -- or worse, actually landing on -- Taxiway Tango, which runs parallel to Runway 16R/34L at the busy airport. Nevertheless, the possibility of a disastrous encounter between a landing aircraft and a taxiing plane, or ground vehicle, remains a very real concern.

"The only 100 percent solution is to remove that taxiway," said Alaska Airlines Air-Safety Chairman and former Captain Jack Wilkes, a pilot with 34 years of experience, to the Seattle Times. "And I don't believe that's going to happen."

He's probably right. Completed in 1999, Taxiway Tango sits relatively unused at the moment -- utilized by just 1 percent of Sea-Tac's current air traffic, mostly corporate jets and other traffic taxiing to the airport's general aviation area. While it is not generally needed at the moment, however, the taxiway will eventually be needed when a planned third runway is completed.

Future planning, as well as space limitations, present a problem: Tango sits only 400 feet away from Runway 16R/34L, and both are paved with concrete. The taxiway is also just 20-feet narrower than runway's 200-ft width -- all conspiring to make the two virtually unidentifiable while on approach.

There has been no confusion between 16R/34L and its companion runway 16L/34R, which is 600 feet away and is paved with asphalt -- making its dark surface easily distinguishable from the air, at least during daytime VFR. The east-most runway is also 50-feet wider than its parallel companion.

At least eight aircraft in all have mistaken 16R/34L and Tango since the taxiway was completed, and three airplanes -- including, as was reported on Aero-News, a American MD-80 carrying 111 passengers and crewmembers -- have landed on the runway. The other five, realizing their mistake, have either side-stepped over to the runway or have initiated go-arounds.

The most recent incident occurred in January 2004, when an Air Canada Dash-8 (file photo of type, right) landed on the taxiway despite the pilot's expert knowledge of the situation.

After touching down, as he later reported, Pilot Roger Seher and his co-pilot were quite startled to hear from the control tower: "You have landed on taxiway" -- they'd literally had no idea. Both pilots said cloud cover over the approach end of the runway and glare off its surface masked the "X" placed at the taxiway's end to dissuade pilots from landing on Tango.

The Times reported a NOTAM also plays on the field's ATIS alerting pilots to the situation, although when ANN called the phone number for the automated service, no such information was available.

While the NTSB has expressed alarm over the situation -- with Acting Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker calling the situation "a serious problem that has the potential to contribute to or cause a major accident" -- airport management and several pilots agree it should be enough.

"I believe the problem's fixed," said Sea-Tac manager Mark Coates. "We haven't had an unsafe landing on Taxiway Tango yet. Every one of them was wrong, and every one of them should not have happened, but they were not unsafe."

Coates told the Times he, ATC, the FAA and the NTSB will keep a close eye on the situation this winter, to insure the problem is resolved.

FMI: www.airnav.com/airport/KSEA