Korean Air passenger pilot mistakes taxiway for runway in Japan

Tokyo - A Korean Air jet with 133 people on board mistakenly landed on a narrow taxiway instead of its designated runway at a provincial airport in Japan on Saturday, officials said.

There were no aircraft on the 30-metre (100-foot)-wide taxiway, half the width of Akita airport's runway, and the Boeing 737-900 plane landed safely.

The plane flew from Incheon in South Korea to Akita, some 450 kilometres (280 miles) north of Tokyo, officials said.

A return flight, which had been scheduled to take off one hour later at 1:20 pm (0420 GMT), was cancelled because of an inquiry into the mistaken landing.

"We feel relieved that there was no injury among the passengers or damage caused to the fuselage," said Hidehiro Tokuyama, manager of Korean Air in Akita.

"We apologise for causing trouble to passengers on the return flight."

The taxiway stretches 2,500 metres (2,730 yards) and runs parallel to the runway.

It was raining lightly with a fair visibility at about 10 kilometres (six miles) at the time of the incident, officials said.

Agence France Presse

Scary to read about this, how could a pilot mistake a small taxi way for the runway. The runway would also have clear runway makings on it eg 34L / 34R etc. the taxiway would have no markings