The investigation report of the October 2001 runway collision between a taxiing Citation CJ2 and a Scandinavian Airlines MD-87 taking off at the Linate Airport at Milan, Italy, is quite revealing. It states that although the airport surface surveillance radar was not operating at the time, coupled with slack air traffic communications procedures and inadequate airport signage, “the accident ultimately resulted from the Citation crew’s human error in taking an incorrect taxiway and straying onto the active runway. The Citation taxied across several markers, including a stop line and an illuminated bar of red stop lights, without communicating with air traffic control.”
Visibility when the Citation landed an hour earlier was estimated as being between 50 and 100 meters (164 and 328 feet). The crash killed all 114 people on both airplanes, as well as four ground workers. Like all accidents, this one shouldn’t have happened, even under the difficulties the pilot faced.
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