A rather well known actor seems to have been involved in an incident at John Wayne airport in Orange County, CA. He was cleared to land on runway 20L, then subsequently queried ATC: “Was that airliner meant to be underneath me?”. Turns out he landed on the taxiway parallel to the runway.
Source:
http://www.businessinsider.com/harrison-ford-passenger-plane-incident-2017-2
He is certainly not the first to commit such a mistake, it has happened to commercial two-person crews on large airports.
Well with a Husky, he could have landed on top of the Boeing, come to a full stop and taken off again ;-)
Imagine the additional pressure on the pilot if he knows every mistake he makes will end up in the news… He’s been quoted in the past saying (a bit tongue in cheek I assume) his greatest feeling was “a perfect flight, concluded by a perfect landing… with witnesses”. Didn’t exactly work out this time.
The last time Ford was on news was when he landed on golf course after engine failure
Well I’m not a famous actor, but I have twice lined up on the wrong runway flying a 152 in those long ago days in a galaxy far, far away before Skydemon or Foreflight . The first was at Eglinton, where my route brought me directly over the disused RAF base at Ballykelly and the other was at John Wayne. Eglinton / Ballykelly was a non-event, but..
At the equally unfamiliar (to me) John Wayne, vis was perfect until the last 5 miles when it instantly went to 5k or something in the LA smog. I was cleared to L base and in the haze I saw and turned toward a runway in the right position, calling final 20L. As I got ‘cleared to land’ I started to wonder if the airliner sitting at a 45 deg angle on the threshold was going to depart soon. And interesting how they’d put up a large building so close to the runway.
Just then, the real airport, 3 miles away, became visible in the murk. I’d lined up on a disused Marine Corps field 3 mi to the NE. And the ‘airliner’ was actually a large white cross painted on the ground!
A quick zoom up onto the actual final, nothing said by ATC and to be sure I called ‘short final’ and got ‘cleared to land’ again, noticing a long line of airliners queuing at the hold waiting for me to put in appearance. I taxied in, dreading the b***g that was so well deserved, but never heard anything. It must have been stressful though, because that night I had the worst headache of my life!
Ever after, one of my pre-landing checks with whatever GPS I have is “Is this the right airport?”!!!
I once lined up on a long, straight road which parallelled the runway at Seattle Boeing Field IIRC, at dusk. I realised my mistake at 500’ above and dragged myself over to the extended runway centerline with gear and flaps in landing position. I had been vectored to final for a visual approach, had tuned in the LLZ and was deperately attempting to identify it to no avail. There were airliners behind me and I was not too eager to screw up (that pressure again 
)
I hope I am older and wiser now. I for sure know I am older.
On another forum, I saw a picture of a similar situation at another airport (LCPH)
A good idea, I think; but likely to be illegal. Do we prefer legality over safety?
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
A good idea, I think; but likely to be illegal. Do we prefer legality over safety?
Rules are manmade and can be changed.
We have occasionally someone landing on our taxiway… from student pilot to old ATPL-Captain, from glider pilot, microlighter to Mooney-Jockey, it seems to be possible to happen to anyone.
Hasn’t happen to me so far, but I won’t bet on it never going to happen. I know of some pilots who accidently took off from taxiways, too.
Landing at Christchurch, New Zealand, ATC said “land on the grass between the white markers”. There were white markers everywhere! Seeing me dither on final, he kindly said “OK to land on the sealed (hard) if you prefer” which I gratefully did. On departure it was by now obvious, but when a place is new to the eye…
Here is a video of him landing
I’ve landed at that airport and on that (left) runway a few times, and its hard to imagine how one would mistake that taxiway for the left runway. On the other hand, its apparent from the video that there was no safety issue of any kind.
