Thomson Airways Boeing 737-800 landed on Cyprus taxiway instead of runway

Cyprus Civil Aviation officials are investigating how a Thomson Airways Boeing 737-800 from England failed to land on the runway at Paphos airport and landed instead on the parallel taxiway.

Flight BY-3351 had departed from Doncaster with a delay of three hours and with 192 passengers and 7 crew on board was cleared to land on the runway when the aircraft aligned with the parallel taxiway and touched down on that taxiway on Wednesday afternoon.

The aircraft rolled out safely and taxied to the apron. As result of the incident a replacement crew was flown to Paphos and returned to Doncaster with a delay of 10.5 hours.

Paphos airport underwent a major overhaul in 2008 and the taxiway had no clear markings.

In a statement to the Cyprus News Agency, operator Hermes Airports spokesman Adamos Aspris said “this was surely a development no one expected. It is a serious incident and the authorities are conducting a thorough investigation.”

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