Harrison Ford accidentally lands on active taxi-way at SNA

[jdb in AZ]

Harrison Ford nearly avoided colliding his private plane with an American Airlines jet with 116 passengers/crew on an active taxi-way, ready to take off for Dallas. He was recorded on an FAA tape asking, "Was that airliner supposed to be under me?" Harrison is 74. Commercial pilots have to "hang it up" at 65. Sounds like it's time to hire his own pilot, or at least co-pilot Chewbacca. For those unfamiliar with airports in the Los Angeles area, SNA is John Wayne Airport in Orange County, the closest airport to Disneyland.

 

[DLgal]

Wait...Harrison Ford is at SNA? Drops tablet...Runs out the door...

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

So he almost gave new meaning to death star?

 

[DeniseJH]

Just my opinion, but he should lose his pilot's license over this. Inexcusable, and could have had tragic consequences.

 

[kimblebee]

Sounds like he should stop flying solo...

 

[mom2rtk]

Sounds like he should stop flying solo...

Seriously!

 

[jevs]

Holy hell, I had no idea he was 74!

And he probably should stop flying after this.

 

[John VN]

Let the air out of the plane's tires.....permanently.

 

[Jdbsfw]

Sounds like he should stop flying solo...

Triple play....well played

 

[adisneyaunt]

Well the FAA is Investigating Again ( last crash was 2015 I believe)
It will be interesting to learn what the Tower told Him and vice versa and why this happened.
Thankfully, no one hurt This time!

 

[FINFAN]

Well the FAA is Investigating Again ( last crash was 2015 I believe)
It will be interesting to learn what the Tower told Him and vice versa and why this happened.
Thankfully, no one hurt This time!

and IIRC the '15 one was due to engine failure/trouble..mechanical and he did a great job of avoiding the homes in the area.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Just my opinion, but he should lose his pilot's license over this. Inexcusable, and could have had tragic consequences.

And he might... at least a temporary suspension.

I think I understand why it happened, but this is inexcusable.
Especially if you see another airplane in the piece of pavement.

MG

 

[bcla]

SNA is a fun little airport. The commercial operations use one of the shortest runways of any major airport, and they have some rather strict noise-reduction requirements.

However, he was apparently cleared to land on runway 20L, which is their shorter general aviation runway. It should look like this:

It is narrower than the main runway, but I'm not quite sure how he would mistake a taxiway (with a large commercial plane) for the runway.

 

[DeniseJH]

Exactly!

 

[Maistre Gracey]

SNA is a fun little airport. The commercial operations use one of the shortest runways of any major airport, and they have some rather strict noise-reduction requirements.

However, he was apparently cleared to land on runway 20L, which is their shorter general aviation runway. It should look like this:

It is narrower than the main runway, but I'm not quite sure how he would mistake a taxiway (with a large commercial plane) for the runway.

Which taxiway did he land on..??

 

[bcla]

Which taxiway did he land on..??

None of the articles I've seen on it say. The airport diagram shows only one taxiway (C) that's parallel to the runways, so I'm thinking that's it. Or it could have been on the apron.

Someone on this Reddit thread says it was taxiway C.

https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/5u34vg/harrison_ford_accidentally_lands_on_taxiway/

Sounds like some pilots find the layout confusing since the commercial and general aviation runways are so close to each other. I'm more familiar with Oakland Airport where the general aviation runways are in a completely different section of the airport than the commercial runway.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

None of the articles I've seen on it say. The airport diagram shows only one taxiway (C) that's parallel to the runways, so I'm thinking that's it. Or it could have been on the apron.

Someone on this Reddit thread says it was taxiway C.

https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/5u34vg/harrison_ford_accidentally_lands_on_taxiway/

Sounds like some pilots find the layout confusing since the commercial and general aviation runways are so close to each other. I'm more familiar with Oakland Airport where the general aviation runways are in a completely different section of the airport than the commercial runway.

I have seen places where from a distance it can be easy to confuse a taxiway with a runway. That said, when one gets close it becomes much more obvious.
It's been a couple years since I've been into sna so I can't quite remember. Also I've only used 20R (19R at the time).

MG

 

[DeniseJH]

It wasn't like he should have been trying to decide which was the runway. Pilots have books of airport layouts so that they are familiar with the runway configurations before they are on top of them.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

It wasn't like he should have been trying to decide which was the runway. Pilots have books of airport layouts so that they are familiar with the runway configurations before they are on top of them.

Yes, but it's not always so clear cut.
I'm not defending him. He clearly screwed up.

MG

 

[DeniseJH]

I should have specified, those books of runway configurations are carried in the aircraft. I don't want to give the impression that they are to be studied and remembered.