Runway maintenance being carried out on the 05-23 flight landing area RAF Lossiemouth air field base. SCO 9659.
Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally the magnetic azimuth of the runway's heading in decadegrees: a runway numbered 09 points east (90°), runway 18 is south (180°), runway 27 points west (270°) and runway 36 points to the north (360° rather than 0°). When taking off from or landing on runway 09, a plane would be heading 90° (east). However, runways in North America that lie within the Northern Domestic Airspace of Canada are numbered relative to true north because proximity to the magnetic North Pole makes the magnetic declination large. A runway can normally be used in both directions, and is named for each direction separately: , "runway 33" in one direction is "runway 15" when used in the other. The two numbers always differ by 18. There is a long history of accidents and serious Runway Excursion incidents which have especially occurred during take off or attempted take off as a result of a lack of flight crew awareness of the temporary closure of part of all of a runway to facilitate runway maintenance. It demonstrates that the lessons of proper pre flight briefing on runway availability and on positive Runway Identification have still to be learned.
Size: 6168px × 3967px
Location: RAF Lossiemouth, Moray. Grampian Region. Scotland. United Kingdom.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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