Air traffic controller in Orlando stops Southwest Airlines pilots mistakenly trying to take off on a taxiway

The pilots of a Boeing 737 started to mistakenly take off from a taxiway at a Florida airport on Thursday before an air traffic controller told them to stop, the Federal Aviation Administration said, announcing it was investigating the incident.

Taxiways are used by planes to travel between gates and runways, but are not intended for take offs or landings.

Southwest Airlines Flight 3278 was cleared to take off on a runway at Orlando International Airport, bound for Albany, New York, the FAA said in a statement. The plane, however, started to accelerate on a parallel taxiway instead, prompting an air traffic controller to cancel the takeoff clearance.

“3278 stop, 3278 stop. Stop Southwest 3278, stop!” air traffic control said from the tower, according to audio from Broadcastify. “Cancel takeoff clearance. You’re on H taxiway Southwest 3278.”

Pilots then slammed the brakes to stop. “Southwest 3278, yes, sir. We stopped,” the pilot replied.

“The crew mistook the surface for the nearby runway,” the airline said in a statement. “Southwest is engaged with the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and FAA to understand the circumstances of the event.”

The aircraft’s top speed was 70 knots at the time, or approximately 80 mph, according to flight data tracker FlightRadar24. Airplanes typically travel about 35 mph on taxiways. A Boeing 737 would need to accelerate to about 150 mph for takeoff.

The plane was meant to be on Runway 17R but was on taxiway H – which runs the same length and parallel to it.

The 737 stopped safely and no other aircraft were involved, Southwest said. The airline later flew the passengers to Albany on a different plane.

Thursday’s episode comes after a series of incidents in recent weeks, including near misses, crash landings and accidents, including the fatal collision of an American Airlines plane and a US Army helicopter in Washington, DC.

On Wednesday the NTSB released a report on the February 6 crash of a Bering Air regional flight in Alaska, which killed all 10 people onboard. According to the NTSB, the Cessna Grand Caravan was overweight before it took off. The plane was initially reported missing but was found the next day on ice floating in Alaska’s Norton Sound.

And on Thursday Canada’s Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report on a February 17 incident that saw a Delta Air Lines regional jet flipping over as it landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Passengers were left “hanging like bats” but all 80 on board - passengers and crew - survived.

On February 25, Southwest Flight 2504, from Omaha, was landing on Chicago Midway Airport’s runway 31C when a private Bombardier Challenger 350 crossed the runway in front of it.

The pilots of the private jet told investigators they thought they were in the right place and crossing a different runway at the time of the incident, according to a preliminary report released by the NTSB.

At their closest point, the two plane’s GPS antennas were separated by about 200 feet, the NTSB reports.

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