Air traffic control at Orlando International airport cancelled the take-off clearance for a Southwest Airlines-operated Boeing 737 that began its take-off roll on a taxiway running parallel to the runway.
The Federal Aviation Administration says it is investigating the incident, which occurred at 09:30 local time on 20 March. It specifies that no other aircraft were involved.
Southwest says that flight 3278 “stopped safely” on the taxiway “after the crew mistook the surface for the nearby runway”.
Nobody was injured during the incident, which prompted Southwest to transfer passengers onto another aircraft for transportation to Albany International airport in New York.
Southwest is “engaged” with the FAA and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) “to understand the circumstances of the event”.
This week, the NTSB released an preliminary report on a separate incident at Chicago Midway International airport in which the pilots of a Flexjet business jet did not recognise the runway as distinct from the taxiway before crossing the path of a Southwest 737 on final approach.
The 737 pilots in that case executed a go-around and landed without further incident.
