Harrison Ford’s Latest Flying Misadventure

Harrison Ford landed off-runway at John Wayne Airport this afternoon.  I feel bad for him – as this was a bone-headed mistake.  In saying so, that particular airport can be a visually confusing one [see note at end], but he has no excuse as I believe he uses that field fairly regularly (I've seen photos of his planes there before) – and I am sure that’s exactly what he would tell you as well (as he slaps himself up-side the head). In fact, it has been reported that immediately after his mistake, he contacted ATC and identified himself as "the schmuck."

Just as additional information, his last crash on the golf course at Santa Monica was judged to have been due to an un-foreseeable mechanical fault.  He was assigned no blame for it whatsoever. I do not see a pattern.

Today though, he landed in otherwise normal circumstances on the parallel taxiway to the left of runway 20L.  If you look at the photo I’ve taken from Google Maps, I added some marks to show where he was cleared to land on 20L (green arrow), where he did land on the taxiway (red arrow) and where the American Airlines 737 that he overflew was waiting for takeoff clearance at the time of the incident (red triangle).  

John Wayne Airport

If you look at the runway number for 20L and contrast it to the numbers on 20R, that alone could be confusing - 20L is marked on the concrete and those numbers may not stand out very well if a person was otherwise visually disoriented. Keep in mind he wasn't looking directly down at this view as in the photo - it was in 3D stretched out in front of him (like looking down a highway from slightly above it).

He couldn’t have missed seeing the 737 – so I am certain there was no danger of a collision between them, but as the news reports have stated, he commented on that jet as he landed and his comments indicate he was very aware it wasn’t supposed to be underneath him – but he didn’t immediately draw the conclusion that he was in the wrong place instead (which he would have if he'd been thinking straight).  His little Aviat is more than capable of landing on much shorter runways than that taxiway, so he surely found it very easy to make a short, steep approach and land beyond.  The question is, why didn't he recognize that as being something wrong while he was in the process of it?

I can see how he could make such a mistake – the visual combination of the left runway (20L) and that taxiway are similar to the visual combination (in aspect) of the 20L and 20R runways – but as someone who wasn’t a stranger to this field, he shouldn't have made that error.  The only times in my entire flying career that I was ever that disoriented on an approach was at unfamiliar airports – never at airports I was in and out of all the time. 

In addition, the taxiway has no runway markings (which a competent pilot like Ford should have immediately realized).  That big 737 in front of (and under) him was another huge clue.

It may sound to you like I am being overly critical.  I am not.  Any pilot who has been around a while has made a mistake or two.  I don't even want to talk about some of the dumb-ass mistakes I made in the almost 30 years I was flying.  

I will be interested to read or hear his thoughts on just exactly how this happened. I suspect he's going to be in a certain amount of trouble with the federales over this one; but as I mentioned, none of us are spotless.  I remember once after a (shall we say) "non-standard" entry to a traffic pattern when I had to go see the tower and explain "just what the hell was I thinking..." 

This isn't an egregious enough offense to warrant the severest action (without some aggravating circumstance), my opinion. In the past, I have even been cleared to land on taxiways - even once landing on a cross-runway taxiway in a stiff crosswind (when I couldn't have landed otherwise).  There has been no mention of any resulting conflict with anyone on the ground (on or crossing that taxiway), although that is certainly a danger at such a busy airport.  Perhaps that will save Mr. Ford from more serious consequences.  I hope so, because absent a more serious outcome, more than a minor sanction would be an over-reaction.   Some are saying it could have been a terrible disaster if he'd "stalled" while over that airliner - but the fact is he didn't and those commentators were being extremely over-dramatic ("The sky is falling, the sky is falling!").  Thousands of airplanes and helicopters fly over stuff with people in them every day without stalling. In fact, the plan is always not to stall until you want to.

*On a VFR approach to this airport one time in the late 1970s, I failed to see the airport at all until I was almost over the fence.  It was very hard to see it against all the ground clutter.  Fortunately, I was lined up with the correct runway when I finally did see it and was able to complete a safe landing without having to go-around.

But, you know... "any landing you can walk away from is a good one," so...

Update 05/01/2017: In the end, the FAA chose not to sanction Mr. Ford at all - so apparently their assessment was similar to mine.  I'd still like to know how it happened though...