I personally believe that there was some confusion at that particular
site about which runway threshold was which -- they cross at about the
start point on one of the runways, terrible design. I'm not a pilot,
but I suspect it's not very common to watch directional heading
(particularly on a mag compass!) while performing a take-off run, and I
have a terrible feeling that the aircraft wasn't lined up exactly down
the runway when the throttles were opened up and the pilot "swung the
rest of the way around" onto the wrong centerline.
I've been in far more than one commercial aircraft that wasn't pointed
exactly down the centerline when acceleration started, swinging that
last bit to straighten out and line up as the run started.
Probably far too late to stop by the time the "oops" got noticed.
Pretty horrible thought to imagine seeing the threshold marks appear in
front of you just as you reach V1....
I friend of mine who is a pilot thought they should have tried to stop,
but I suspect a tree line at 120 knots while overrunning the runway
would make me pull back on the stick and pray, too!
The cockpit recorder should help find out what happened, and at least
those two runways need to be separated with separate taxiways.
Deregulation has not been good for the airline industry, neither is the
lack of a national pension program that all businesses are required to
participate in.
Peter
