No injuries were reported, and passengers departing Orlando International Airport were accommodated on another aircraft heading to their destination of Albany, New York, the airline said in a statement. The aircraft was switched to help facilitate an investigation.
Southwest Flight 3278 had been cleared for takeoff and initiated a takeoff roll on a taxiway after the crew mistook the surface for the nearby runway, officials said. But air traffic controllers canceled the clearance before the plane could take off.
I’m not sure I’d jump straight to “dumbass”. Orlando is a giant concrete jungle where basically everything looks the same. I can definitely see how a mistake could be made, however there is inevitably going to be some other factors that led to it. Maybe fatigue, maybe distractions, maybe shitty pilots, but we don’t really know yet.