2005-02 · NASA ASRS report 646539
BE55 PLT ATTRIBUTES RWY INCURSION AT BDL TO LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH THE ARPT AND CONFUSING CTLR INSTRUCTIONS.
WAS AT THE FBO AT BDL. RECEIVED ATIS INFO INDICATING RWY 24 AND RWY 15 IN USE. GOT IFR CLRNC AND CALLED GND CTL WHO INSTRUCTED TO TAXI TO RWY 24 VIA TXWY E; RWY 1 AND TXWY C. SINCE RWY 24 REQUIRES A R TURN FROM THE FBO THE TAXI INSTRUCTIONS DIDN'T MAKE SENSE AND I ASKED FOR PROGRESSIVE INSTRUCTIONS. LCL CTLR ADVISED THAT TXWY E INTERSECTED RWY 1 AND FOR ME TO FOLLOW TXWY E. DEPARTING THE RAMP; I INITIALLY TURNED R ON TXWY E AND SAW LARGE BRIGHT LIGHTS COMING MY WAY. GND SAID NOTHING BUT MY PAX WHO IS ALSO AN INST RATED PLT SUGGESTED THAT I TURN L ON TXWY E (AWAY FROM THE ACTIVE RWY) SO I MADE A 180 DEG TURN AND PROCEEDED ON TXWY E UNTIL IT INTERSECTED WITH RWY 1 AND RWY 33. I WAS ACTUALLY ON AN ACTIVE RWY AND SAW LIGHTS FACING ME ON RWY 15. I QUERIED THE CTLR WHO SAID I WAS AT A CONFUSING INTXN AND I THEN TURNED FURTHER R AND PROCEEDED TO TAXI ON RWY 1 AND TXWY C TO THE ACTIVE. IN MY VIEW; TAXIING AT NIGHT AT AN UNFAMILIAR ARPT IS STILL THE MOST DIFFICULT PHASE OF FLT. THE LCL CTLR ATTEMPTED TO DETOUR ME AROUND SOME INBOUND TFC BUT INSTEAD CREATED A DANGEROUS SIT FOR ALL CONCERNED. 1) I SHOULD HAVE SPENT MORE TIME STUDYING THE TAXI RTE BEFORE ACCEPTING THE TAXI CLRNC. I ASSUMED; WRONGLY; THAT PROGRESSIVE TAXI INSTRUCTIONS WOULD KEEP ME OUT OF TROUBLE. 2) SINCE DEPARTING THE RAMP REQUIRED A L TURN; AWAY FROM THE DIRECTION OF THE ACTIVE RWY; THE CTLR SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE SPECIFIC. HE KNEW FROM MY REQUEST THAT I WAS UNFAMILIAR AND NEEDED HELP. 3) THE FACT THAT IN ORDER TO FOLLOW TXWY E TO THE END IN ORDER TO INTERCEPT RWY 1; I HAD TO TAXI ONTO WHAT WAS ANOTHER POSSIBLY ACTIVE RWY (RWY 15) CREATED WHAT IN MY VIEW IS A DANGEROUS SIT. THE FACT THAT THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION TFC ON RWY 15 WAS JUST ANOTHER TAXIING ACFT; DOES NOT GIVE ME COMFORT.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.