Southwest Flight Attempts Taking Off From Taxiway ATC Stops

Dhaka: Pilots of Southwest Airlines Flight WN3278 attempted to take off from a taxiway at Orlando International Airport on March 20. However, the ATC could restrict the departure well before the aircraft even reached V1 speed.

Flight WN3278 is a scheduled daily flight from Orlando to Albany in the United States. Southwest was operating the flight with a Boeing 737-800, registered N8315C, on the day of this event.

At around 9:30 local time, the air traffic control instructed flight WN3278 to line up on runway 17R and begin its takeoff roll. Mistakenly, the pilots lined up the 737 along taxiway H, which is parallel to runway 17R, and began rolling for departure.

At that point, an air traffic controller noticed the unusual movement of the aircraft and immediately canceled its takeoff clearance.

Upon receiving this instruction, the pilots rejected the takeoff and returned back to the terminal.

ADS-B data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft's ground speed reached around 70 knots before rejecting the takeoff. Though it's well below the 737-800's average takeoff decision speed, V1, beyond which a takeoff shouldn't be rejected. Thanks to the ATC's prompt response.

Fortunately, there was no other aircraft on the taxiway H during this incident.

Southwest Airlines later arranged a Boeing 737-8 MAX, registered N8802Q, for the flight with an entirely new crew. The flight took off 3 hours and 45 minutes behind schedule and arrived in Albany without any further incident.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the incident. Southwest claimed it's collaborating "with the NTSB and FAA to understand the circumstances of the event."

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