I have not read the NTSB's report on the incident involving a China Airlines A340 departing Anchorage, Alaska, from the Kilo taxiway on 25 January 2002 (Flight International 17-23 June), but the episode bears a more-than-superficial similarity to the crash of a Korean Air McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 there in December 1983.
That aircraft too was cleared to depart from the northerly runway 32 (as are most heavy departures from Anchorage) but instead, attempted a take-off from part of runway 24L, which runs parallel to the Kilo taxiway. Both incidents took place in the winter with snow on the ground, and would seem to suggest, notwithstanding the cockpit heading information available to the crews, that the signage and markings at Anchorage could perhaps do with somewhat closer scrutiny.
Tony Kilbride Surrey, UK
Source: Flight International
