Harrison Ford doin' some bush landings

Landing on a taxiway is considered a bush landing?
 
How do you accidentally do this? I don't get it. There are these really big white numbers painted at the front end of every runway.
 
The news report I saw wasn't really clear. Did he definitely land on the taxiway or did he perhaps land on the grass between the runway and the taxiway?

Edit: Read the link in the OP above. That one says definitely he landed on the taxiway. Oops. It's definitely frowned upon.
 
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Seems to be an easier mistake than it should be.

The ATIS at KFTW had a reminder to use the runway instead of taxiway A for a few months.

Also, KTKI has a taxiway that WAS the runway for years. That came in handy one day when a plane flipped on the runway. They allowed other traffic to "land at their own discretion" on the taxiway which is the same length and not much narrower.
 
I remember Palm Springs having a really wide taxiway right between the two runways. Apparently, several planes have landed there by mistake over the years.
 
Dude needs to hang it up. He's not helping GA, himself, or anyone else with his record.
 
azpilot said:
How do you accidentally do this? I don't get it. There are these really big white numbers painted at the front end of every runway.
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Human psychology makes it all too easy for this sort of thing to happen.

It involves something like "confirmation bias" - once you start down an erroneous path, you tend to only see things that confirm your perceptions, and can be literally blind to conflicting information. It's how both professional airline and military pilots have managed to even land at the wrong airport.

If anyone thinks it can't happen to them, that's just hubris. Pride goeth before a fall and all that.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
Really? What record?
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Read the last paragraph

"This is not the first incident in the air Ford has experienced. The avid flyer crash-landed a small plane on a golf course near Los Angeles in 2015 and was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries. And in 2000, Ford's six-seater Beechcraft Bonanza had to do an emergency landing at Nebraska's Lincoln Municipal Airport."

If you're landing on a ****ing taxiway at that airport, then I question those other incidents too. It's clear there's a lack of good judgement. I realize that if you fly long enough, stuff happens. But this is a pretty big screw up that endangered others. I don't care how potentially easy that is to do. There's no excuse and he needs to reevaluate this activity.

He probably didn't even use an AoA indicator either....
 
MetalCloud said:
It's clear there's a lack of good judgement.
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No, it's not. One can have excellent judgment and still make mistakes.

There's no excuse and he needs to reevaluate this activity.
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To the former, there are quirks of human psychological that leads even professional airline crews and military pilots to land on or take off from the wrong runway or even the wrong airport. Not so much an excuse as a reason.

But I'll agree a 709 ride might be appropriate.

As a more general point, it bugs me that some are so quick to jump on fellow pilots for any transgression. I think it's unseemly.
 
MetalCloud said:
Read the last paragraph

"This is not the first incident in the air Ford has experienced. The avid flyer crash-landed a small plane on a golf course near Los Angeles in 2015 and was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries. And in 2000, Ford's six-seater Beechcraft Bonanza had to do an emergency landing at Nebraska's Lincoln Municipal Airport."

If you're landing on a ****ing taxiway at that airport, then I question those other incidents too. It's clear there's a lack of good judgement. I realize that if you fly long enough, stuff happens. But this is a pretty big screw up that endangered others. I don't care how potentially easy that is to do. There's no excuse and he needs to reevaluate this activity.

He probably didn't even use an AoA indicator either....
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I know he had the engine out landing on the golf course but didn't know about the emergency landing in Nebraska.

Still, he had two forced landings which are not the pilots fault and were handled in a very professional manner with zero deaths. Now he makes one bad landing where he lands on a taxiway in a Husky and everyone is now wanting to lynch mob him about his age and skills? But then again this is POA. Not surprised.
 
MetalCloud said:
Read the last paragraph

"This is not the first incident in the air Ford has experienced. The avid flyer crash-landed a small plane on a golf course near Los Angeles in 2015 and was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries. And in 2000, Ford's six-seater Beechcraft Bonanza had to do an emergency landing at Nebraska's Lincoln Municipal Airport."

If you're landing on a ****ing taxiway at that airport, then I question those other incidents too. It's clear there's a lack of good judgement. I realize that if you fly long enough, stuff happens. But this is a pretty big screw up that endangered others. I don't care how potentially easy that is to do. There's no excuse and he needs to reevaluate this activity.

He probably didn't even use an AoA indicator either....
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Yeah, engine failure and a forced landing due to wind sheer in a 15 year span sure equates to a lack of good judgement. I'm sure you're the poster boy for good choices, which is why you post drivel like this.
 
MetalCloud said:
Read the last paragraph

"This is not the first incident in the air Ford has experienced. The avid flyer crash-landed a small plane on a golf course near Los Angeles in 2015 and was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries. And in 2000, Ford's six-seater Beechcraft Bonanza had to do an emergency landing at Nebraska's Lincoln Municipal Airport."

If you're landing on a ****ing taxiway at that airport, then I question those other incidents too. It's clear there's a lack of good judgement. I realize that if you fly long enough, stuff happens. But this is a pretty big screw up that endangered others. I don't care how potentially easy that is to do. There's no excuse and he needs to reevaluate this activity.

He probably didn't even use an AoA indicator either....
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I believe the golf course accident was a mechanical failure. Instead of blaming him I think he deserves kudos for doing as good a job as he did considering the alternatives.

After 35 years of flying, I'm not gonna armchair quarterback what happened in SNA.
 
Easy there internet. I realize we all make mistakes. I don't care who he is and I'm not saying the mech failure was his fault. He did a great job landing that.

I'm saying this last one doesn't really help GA now does it?

Call me what you want @Lachlan ... I don't really give a crap. You don't know me at all.

It's a pretty big damn mistake. That's not an oops. I'm not saying he's a bad pilot. It could have been disaster. He needs to reassess himself. I know I would after a mistake like that.

First thing my wife said this morning: "Harrison Ford again?"
 
Besides landing on a taxiway, I think the big concern is going to be flying over a loaded airliner. Why Harrison missed that clue (although he admitted he saw it on ATC tape) and didn't realize he was lined up wrong, well, I dunno.
 
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I say again...
In HF's case, he could have lost perspective...20R is the same scale to 20L as 20L is to the taxiway. I don't think the 737 was actually under him since he can't see what's under him but it was probably close enough for him to call it out. He may have been thinking that the 737 was crossing 20L going to 20R and should not have been cleared to cross his runway that close. He was thinking another case of runway incursion. Let's face it, we always think we are doing the right thing and our minds tell us the other guy is wrong. (insert political comment here)
 
He screwed up. Maybe his cognitive abilities are starting to decline and he shouldn't be flying anymore. Maybe he was just tired and distracted and made a really stupid mistake. He just needs a thorough 709 ride.
 
I'm kinda wondering what part the control tower played in this.
he had to be talking to them?? or was he?
 
I know of one instructor (now retired), ATP and several other letters that he has printed after his name, including PHD, and his wife has all the same letters after her name and flies. He has had 5 gear up landings in his 50+ years of flying, and only one was a mechanical problem. Yet he never makes the news.

I believe the haters are after Harrison Ford because he is a movie star and people put him up on a pedestal and expects him to be perfect 110% of the time.
 
Tom-D said:
I'm kinda wondering what part the control tower played in this.
he had to be talking to them?? or was he?
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He was talking to them. I've been up in that tower before - from the controller's angle I don't think it'd be too obvious that Ford was lined up with the taxiway.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
I know he had the engine out landing on the golf course but didn't know about the emergency landing in Nebraska.

Still, he had two forced landings which are not the pilots fault and were handled in a very professional manner with zero deaths. Now he makes one bad landing where he lands on a taxiway in a Husky and everyone is now wanting to lynch mob him about his age and skills? But then again this is POA. Not surprised.
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What I read was that the Nebraska incident was not an "emergency landing" but that the plane "departed the runway because of a gust of wind".
 
Tom-D said:
I'm kinda wondering what part the control tower played in this.
he had to be talking to them?? or was he?
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One article mentioned that the tower cleared him to land on a runway, 20L I think it is. After HF landed he quizzed the tower, "was that airliner supposed to be there", and tower informed him he had landed on the taxiway. Hard to say about the local controller not realizing HR was lined up on the taxiway because of the view/angle from the tower. It'll all come out. Still, that taxiway had no markings as a runway on it, and an airliner wouldn't have been there if it were a runway.
 
Zeldman said:
I know of one instructor (now retired), ATP and several other letters that he has printed after his name, including PHD, and his wife has all the same letters after her name and flies. He has had 5 gear up landings in his 50+ years of flying, and only one was a mechanical problem. Yet he never makes the news.

I believe the haters are after Harrison Ford because he is a movie star and people put him up on a pedestal and expects him to be perfect 110% of the time.
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That's kind of my point though… Personally I don't care if he's an actor. With all the recent issues for Santa Monica airport and GA in general, I feel we're going to get more of the microscope put on us ( perhaps unfairly ). Some "activist "could certainly use this as an opportunity to really attack GA. The non-aviation community is going to drink a lot more hateraide than people on this board. Yes mistakes happen, and we all need to learn from them. I know I try my best to.

I too can understand how something like this could possibly happen. With flying there so many things going on at once, it is very easy to get tunnel vision and focus on one particular thing.

Everyone in the situation is pretty lucky. I just hope he treats it with the concern that it deserves and doesn't take a "celebrity elite " attitude for it… I don't know the guy, I don't know anything about the guy, and I want him and everyone else to be safe out there.
 
MetalCloud said:
First thing my wife said this morning: "Harrison Ford again?"
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The only reason it's "Harrison Ford again" is because any other pilot won't make national news like this. Your wife knows him as an actor. He's had a couple other mishaps, but my understanding is that they were due to mechanical failure and he handled them very safely. Not sure what happened in this case, but I'm not going to pass judgement without the full story.
 
Lol, give Han Solo a break... I've had two mechanical failures that resulted in loss of engine power in flight. One mix cable broke on my C-150 after a long x/c. Engine fell silent on final at the end of a long day of x/c flying landing back at Colorado Springs at 0200 in the morining. Second one was a C-172P who's engine ate itself shortly after takeoff in the pattern while A-10s were waiting for takeoff.

I've also landed on the wrong runway at 2200L here in Florida. Even after doing my best to line up correctly. And yes, there was an airliner sitting on the taxiway waiting for me to land. I sorta even flew over that occupied airliner... Landed on RWY30, instead of RWY01. What a bonehead move, right?

Of course:
-- both runways meet at the exact point that I approached on final
--the approach is over the water
--fancy military runway lighting isn't visible outside of particular angles, so it even looked correct from my eyepoint. I landed on the only runway that I could see...

Why haven't I been in the news? --that's right, I'm not famous so IT'S NOT NEWSWORTHY...

Mr. Ford has done more for general aviation than 99.999% of the population of hollywood, so don't hang our biggest fan/ambassador/whateverplease?
 
thomasdr72 said:
--fancy military runway lighting isn't visible outside of particular angles, so it even looked correct from my eyepoint. I landed on the only runway that I could see...
?
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"Fancy military runway lighting"? Never heard of that. FYI airport lighting is the same as any other US airport. I can verify this as I was a controller at a few Air Force bases and we controlled the runway lights (intensity levels) and did it IAW FAA Controller Manual, 7110'65.
 
mscard88 said:
"Fancy military runway lighting"? Never heard of that. FYI airport lighting is the same as any other US airport. I can verify this as I was a controller at a few Air Force bases and we controlled the runway lights (intensity levels) and did it IAW FAA Controller Manual, 7110'65.
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H'mm, my 17 years of GA flying experience tells me different, but it could all be mental. All I know is that every military field that I've been to you can only see the runway you are lined up with. Most every civil field I've been to you can easily see the other runways. But it might be as you say, just lighting controls...
 
Here's a visual for those unfamiliar with SNA. The 737 would've been holding short of 20L on L, taxiing to takeoff 20R. This is common - I've more often than not landed at SNA with the big iron waiting short of 20L or between 20L and 20R, or both (high, steep approach to avoid the jet blast over the numbers on short final 20L if someone's sitting there to the right).

Ford landed on Charlie, over top of the 737 holding short of 20L on Lima (in HS1 on the airport diagram). I've had to go around before for jets crossing 20L; he probably thought the same thing was happening. Why he didn't go around is beyond me, regardless of whether or not he was lined up correctly. If there's a 737 sitting in my way on short final...to me, that's the primary failure in this situation: not going around. As being discussed, people land on the wrong taxiway/airport/etc all the time for various reasons. That doesn't explain the failure to go-around with a jet sitting on your "runway" though.
 

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3 in the green said:
Here's a visual for those unfamiliar with SNA. The 737 would've been holding short of 20L on L, taxiing to takeoff 20R. This is common - I've more often than not landed at SNA with the big iron waiting short of 20L or between 20L and 20R, or both (high, steep approach to avoid the jet blast over the numbers on short final 20L if someone's sitting there to the right).

Ford landed on Charlie, over top of the 737 holding short of 20L on Lima (in HS1 on the airport diagram). I've had to go around before for jets crossing 20L; he probably thought the same thing was happening. Why he didn't go around is beyond me, regardless of whether or not he was lined up correctly. If there's a 737 sitting in my way on short final...to me, that's the primary failure in this situation: not going around. As being discussed, people land on the wrong taxiway/airport/etc all the time for various reasons. That doesn't explain the failure to go-around with a jet sitting on your "runway" though.
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I figured it would be something like this... Great pic!
 
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