A Southwest crew got their aircraft up to 70 knots on a taxiway in Orlando before a controller noticed and ordered them to stop on Thursday. “3278 stop, 3278 stop. Stop Southwest 3278, stop!” CNN quoted the controller as saying. “Cancel takeoff clearance. You’re on H taxiway Southwest 3278.” The crew complied and reported they had stopped a few seconds later. They had been cleared to take off on Runway 17R, which is parallel to Taxiway H.
“The crew mistook the surface for the nearby runway,” an airline statement said. “Southwest is engaged with the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and FAA to understand the circumstances of the event.” The passengers were deplaned and put on a different aircraft for their flight to Albany, New York. The incident capped a week of preliminary report releases on high-profile accidents that have occurred in the last couple of months.
