Ben wrote:
How is it that they were able to see the runway but not an airplane of 95'
wingspan and 82' length sitting on it?

People see what they expect to see.

Yes. An interesting illustration of that was provided in the
psychology study that showed a film of a group passing basketballs back
and forth. The audience was asked to watch the film and count the
number of passes between members of the white-shirted team. After the
one minute film the audience was asked to write down the number of
passes and anything unusual they may have noticed during the film.
Less than half commented on the fact that toward the middle of the clip
a large man in a gorilla costume walked across the room, stood right in
front of the camera and beat his chest and then slowly walked back out.
See http://apps.carleton.edu/voice/features.php3?id=106

When our attention is focussed on one aspect of a scene it's very easy
to ignore everything else.