4mo ago

Southwest flight almost takes off from taxiway — rather than runway — at Florida airport

No injuries were reported, and passengers departing Orlando International Airport were accommodated on another aircraft heading to their destination of Albany, New York, the airline said in a statement. The aircraft was switched to help facilitate an investigation.

Southwest Flight 3278 had been cleared for takeoff and initiated a takeoff roll on a taxiway after the crew mistook the surface for the nearby runway, officials said. But air traffic controllers canceled the clearance before the plane could take off.

18 comments

Who hasn't done that _{in flight sim}?
- A simulator is a great way to live out the perfectly normal and not at all niche dream of taking off from a taxiway rather than a runway.
- v1… v2… and.. rotaté… whoops, that was the ramp. Eh, they probably won’t mind.
This is a random crazy internet comment, but, what if COVID is making everyone dumber? Just something I ponder when I see things like this.
- i think it's more the stress is getting to everyone
- Severe covid does cause brain damage. the generalized inflammation from covid affects the brain.
- There are already many significant studies showing a high correlation. Come up with a better conspiracy theory and I'm sure my fellow citizens will vote for it.
  
  Ok, hear me out: brain worms.
  Everyone can get one, it makes you smart enough to run healthcare in the US almost immediately.
  
  My vote is for micro-plastics making us dumber.
- Also, CO2 displacing oxygen in the atmosphere means everyones brains are somewhat O2 deficient
Some discussion over on reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1jfzoo1/my_plane_tried_to_take_off_on_a_taxiway/
Including the path of the jet: https://i.imgur.com/QCY0kWO.jpeg
Dumbass crossed one taxiway and started to take off from the second.
- I’m not sure I’d jump straight to “dumbass”. Orlando is a giant concrete jungle where basically everything looks the same. I can definitely see how a mistake could be made, however there is inevitably going to be some other factors that led to it. Maybe fatigue, maybe distractions, maybe shitty pilots, but we don’t really know yet.
CAN WE JUST START REPORTING THE FUCKING NEWS?
THIS OOOPSIES NO ONE WAS HURT, SOMEONE ALMOST BARELY DIDNT DO SOMETHING SHIT MEANS NOTHING.
WE ARE SLIDING INTO FASCISM QUICKER THAN SHIT. REPORT IT, SELL THESE MOFHERFUCKERS OUT AND DO THE BARE FUCKING BOTTOM OF THE BARREL REPORTING AT A MINIMUM.
OP, if you're not a bot, you should fucking be ashamed.
- Yes, there have been 20 deadly plane crashes in 2025, since the presidents started firing air traffic controllers because they were “too woke” or some such nonsense. Prior to this year, the most recent deadly crash involving a US airliner was in 2009.
  
  No, this was purely the pilot's fault, and they're employed by Southwest. The government cuts have affected ATC, but they aren't responsible for the pilots knowing the difference between a runway and a taxiway.
  
  I haven't seen any data about an actual increase in incidents. My suspicion is that it's just the news reporting every single incident instead of just the major ones, because it gets clicks.

18 comments