wrote in
ps.com:

Judah wrote:

If the answer is that they took off from the wrong runway, then the
question becomes what caused them to be unable to identify the runway
as the wrong runway?


Do airport charts that pilots carry along not contain runway lengths?
If yes, there'd be another oversight.


The Sectional shows the length of the longest runway at an airfield. The A/FD
shows all runway lengths. The IFR-approved GPS systems in the planes that I
fly have runway lengths in their database that can be popped up on the screen
with a button. I don't think it was a question of not having the runway
length info available to them.

Someone posted a link to a Sattelite view of the field. In looking at it, if
the signage for runway 22 was not clear, I could see how it would be possible
for a pilot to line up on 22 without seeing the numbers, and confuse it for
26. That's not meant to excuse the mistake, because there are other checks
that should have been done, and clearly there is an element of carelessness
when one take off from a wrong runway under any circumstance. But seeing that
image did change my perspective on at least how it could even be possible for
a professional pilot to take off on a runway that was supposedly very
different than the intended runway...