NTSB Report on October Delta 767 Taxiway Landing in Atlanta

The NTSB has published a preliminary incident report regarding the Delta 767 from Rio de Janeiro which landed on a taxiway at Atlanta Hartsfield Intl. Airport on Oct. 19th. The report cites a number of unusual circumstances which preceded the error, in which luckily, no one was injured.

+ A check airman became sick enroute and was relocated to the main cabin.
+ A medical emergency was declared to ATC via Delta dispatchers.
+ Runway 27L was being used for arrivals that morning, but ATC offered the crew use of 27R via a sidestep approach, to put them closer to the terminal in order to expedite aid to the sick check airman.
+ Because it was not the baseline approach runway at the time, 27R's ILS and approach lights were not operating.

http://www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/brief.asp?ev_i ... 5636&key=1

so it wasn't their fault

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Originally Posted by afr022

so it wasn't their fault

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They haven't made a final ruling on that yet. I'm pretty sure they'll still be found at fault despite the circumstances.

I think there will be some pilot fault but considering circumstances there will probably not be a huge amount of blame sholdered to the crew actually. If they have good aviation lawyers they will beat the rap all together.

they'll probably say there were mitigating factors involved, but ultimately it's up to the crew to realize they're not landing on a runway.