Alex Pitschmann wrote:

I can see how they got disoriented in the dark (my guess) and I can see how
the tower wouldn't necessarily pick up that they were on the wrong runway,
but I can't understand why the 'WTF is going on here' alarm didn't go off in
the Pilot or Co-pilots head as they were starting a takeoff roll down a 75'
wide runway in poor shape, as opposed to the newer 150' wide runway they
were supposed to be on.
That is, if this is what really happened.
I believe it would be obvious to me if I had my little 172 on a 75' runway
when I expected 150' wide.
We're all armchair quarterbacks at this point.
My heart goes out to the families that lost loved ones.

I can certainly see how one could taxi to the wrong runway and even line
up on it. But taking off on it is inexcusable. One of the last checks
I was taught to make before firewalling the throttle is to check that
the heading of the airplane matches the runway to which I was cleared
for takeoff. It takes less than two seconds to make this check and it
will catch this error every time.


Matt