Boeing 747 Confusingly Takes Off in the Middle of the Night: Saudia Cargo Flight 953

[@budddwyer_treasory]

Always great to watch MPC's videos!!!

[@Hjtrne]

"See? Anybody could make that mistake." - Harrison Ford

[@Meisha-san]

🤣 Taking off from taxiways is one thing. Landing on them like Ford did is another 😅

[@earnshaw5]

At least it wasn’t a golf course 😂

[@gregtennessee8249]

If life were like the movies...

[@oldhickory4686]

Same guy who supported Grandma Harris...

[@jelmerbiesma5999]

Air Canada almost landed on a taxiway at San Francisco

[@maxon-m3c]

Bad situation when pilots are "unaware" of anything!

[@Infinixftbl]

Love your videos new sub

[@MPCFlights]

Welcome aboard

[@MrCrystalcranium]

The simulation quality on this channel is first rate especially in night operations. The shimmering of the background lights in the exhaust heat is so realistic. Do I blame these pilots? I guess. It is their responsibility to be hypervigilant at night with thousands of lights denoting all sorts of things but taxiways and runways are so complex at the large airports. I don't know if this three decade old plane had the runway identifier and runway annunciation system on it. If it did, I blame them a bit more!

[@jelmerbiesma5999]

The same happened twice at Schiphol Amsterdam airport where some runways have two taxiways.

[@htimsid]

Which incidents?

[@jelmerbiesma5999]

A KLM Boeing 747 took off from a taxiway. A Transavia Boeing 737 was warned by the tower and stopped.

[@KongKingman]

I guess no ground radar? How did the tower authorize takeoff?

[@fernandotovar6921]

What kind of pilots doesn’t know that lights on all taxiways are BLUE and all runways lights are green?

[@donaldwilson5693]

Runway lights are white!!! Taxiway center line lighting is green.

[@skyboy1956]

obviously the ones NOT on YT.

[@donaldwilson5693]

@@skyboy1956 😂😅😂

[@Hollow0423]

Runway edge lights are white. Maybe you’re thinking of the green lead in lines off a taxiway or the green lights that designate the start of the runway on approach.

[@skyboy1956]

well, if you're a pilot then you represent at least one that is confused.

[@Aircraft1606.]

Saudia Cargo Flight 953 CVR Transcript 2:11 TOWER: Saudia 953‚ continue taxiing via Golf. and turn via Victor for runway 33R. 2:20 SV953: Taxiing on Golf and turn on Victor for runway 33R. Saudia 953 4:39 TOWER: Saudia 953‚ wind is calm‚ cleared for takeoff runway 33R. 4:46 SV953: Cleared for takeoff runway 33R. Saudia 953. 5:20 PILOT:80 KNOTS. 5:31 PILOT: Abort!

[@Ztbmrc1]

Here in the sim you can clearly see the blue taxiway edge lights. I am not sure how clear it was in reality. If they had RAAS it would have shouted at them: "Caution on taxiway!!!".

[@boeingdriver29]

Perfectly clear.

[@kevinheard8364]

I am not a pilot, and arguably have "no business 'judging' "; but were the blue taxiway lights not blue that night? .. just hard to imagine when I also thought the 747 required an Flight Engineer, as well ???? just very confusing/disappointing

[@wilburfinnigan2142]

Newer 747's d NOT require a flight engineer, only the old ones !!! One of the improvements n newer models !! !

[@johnfisher7143]

The crew saw exactly what they were expecting to see, it’s a very powerful phenomenon that’s hard to train for. Luckily they got away with it, could have been disastrous.

[@bradjohnson482]

Conformation bias?

[@bunglejoy3645]

Couldnt there be some dirt of sensor that tells ATC and the pilots if there on a taxiway and not a runway something thst when a plsne goes over the area it says taxiway tgen they eould have knoen or lut up signs simplay displaying taxiway oscar 5 for example

[@virginiaviola5097]

Surely painting 2 big K’s at the start of the taxiway, seeing that this has happened before could have prevented the pilots from making this mistake. And a big 33 at the start of the runway.

[@wasserdagger]

Absolutely. Also, isn't there a way for the control tower to have a spotter who could visually check and verify that the plane was lined up on the correct frickin' runway rather than on a taxiway? Why do they call it a "control" tower anyway?? Just implementing a few additional (and simple) safety checks could *easily* prevent these kind of woopsies from ever happening again. Sheesh.

[@palco22]

Pilot turned to the co-pilot and said "Ooppps" !

[@cletusvandamme6262]

They were performing an impression of Harrison Ford's piloting "skills".

[@johannesbols57]

I'm on the point of writing the ALPA approved international bestseller: TAXIWAYS FOR DUMMIES. I'll let you know when my book tour comes to your town.

[@vincenorman9291]

When they opened the new airport in Jeddah a 737 took off from the taxiway.

[@Nostrildamas65]

Back in 2017, an Air Canada Airbus nearly pulled a catastrophic Harrison Ford trick, trying to land on a taxiway at SFO. They called the tower “Confirmed, we’re cleared to land, 28R? We see lights on the runway…”. Yeah something didn’t look right, because they were lined up with the parallel taxiway that had four planes lined up waiting to depart. They missed one of the waiting planes by about 60’ when they initiated the go-around.

[@Foxstang4life]

Holy shish-kebab

[@maxwellcrazycat9204]

LOL! I must remember this one.

[@eucliduschaumeau8813]

Maybe they need a big sign that says “This Is Not a Runway”.

[@markcardwell]

Good vid. Run your Checklists, do the procedures.

[@jpegnow]

Aren't runways clearly marked ? How can a pilot wrongly take a runway ?

[@MrEsMysteriesMagicks]

"When you get back to the apron, we have a number for you to call."

[@Nivola1953]

This was 2024 in a clear night, right? Where is the GPS? Plane is too old, doesn’t have it? Why pilots didn’t check visually the runway numbers? Displaced threshold? Why didn’t use ILS to check alignment with Center line? No ILS? Why never notice visually the lights, they should be different between taxiways and runways! Big airport right, no ground radar to pickup the mistake? So many misses to align the holes in the Swiss cheese model.

[@davidmccann9811]

Taxiways and runways look too similar.

[@stevelogan5475]

What a hot mess , he is certified ?

[@Grandpa_Boxer]

Don't 747's have 3 pilots?

[@donaldwilson5693]

Only on long flights

[@gunsaway1]

Never fly a third world airline. I have Trained Flight crews from these countries and they don’t get it

[@Randomly_Browsing]

But Saudia aren't third world......

[@ChrisBarrow-617]

Air Atlanta use Icelandic and European flight crew

[@AnthonyC35]

Please delete this comment, it's highly discriminatory.

[@andylambertz84]

Its experience.

[@snarkybuttcrack]

you train them so maybe you don't get it

[@gregtennessee8249]

Drug testing no good?

[@Hollow0423]

I’m going to call it what it is. Incompetence. It’s not the design of the airport because I fly out of it all the time as a passenger (I’m an airport manager for the Saudi National Guard). Everything is clearly marked. Its pilots not familiarizing the airfield layout and if they did familiarize, they’d know there was parallel taxiway. Also, how in the heck do you not know the difference between taxiway blue edge lights and runway white edge lights? Where they focused on the green lead in line?

[@mr.nibblenips4231]

Doh!

[@skygh]

Muted

[@wilburfinnigan2142]

sounds like a pi$$ poor airport design and lack of adequet marling ???

[@snarkybuttcrack]

lick of edequat sperling

[@yvetteandjorgenlarsen9753]

What kind of marling do you recommend??

[@georgeandrews3387]

Middle East.. No surprises