Goodness gracious, two Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) pilots are going to have some explaining to do (thanks to Hans for flagging this)…
SAS pilots accelerate to 107 knots on Brussels taxiway
This incident happened on Thursday, February 5, 2026, and involves SAS flight SK2590, scheduled to operate from Brussels (BRU) to Copenhagen (CPH). The 470-mile flight was supposed to be operated by an Airbus A320neo with the registration code SE-ROM.
The plane was running behind schedule — while it was supposed to depart at 8:30PM, it ended up only departing at 9:44PM. However, it never actually got off the ground.
The pilots were supposed to taxi out to runway 7R. Instead, they turned a little too early, and ended up starting their takeoff roll on taxiway V1, which is parallel to the runway (presumably they were planning on doing a midfield takeoff). The pilots accelerated on the taxiway, to the point that the plane reached 107 knots (123 miles per hour), which is approaching the plane’s typical takeoff speed (130+ knots).
The thing is, the taxiway is way shorter than the runway, so they were quickly running out of space for their takeoff roll. So they then started decelerating, and came to a stop at the very end of the taxiway, and reportedly ended up skidding off the runway. Passengers and crew had to be evacuated. Those onboard describe this as a terrifying incident, with strong braking to slow the plane down (in addition to flaps and reverse thrusters).
Weather conditions at the time of the incident were fine, so that doesn’t appear to be a factor here. In a statement, the airline shared that “safety is our absolute priority,” and “we are currently conducting a thorough internal investigation alongside local authorities to understand the sequence of events.”
This is really bad, and this was a very close call
This isn’t the first time that pilots have tried to take off on a taxiway, and it also certainly won’t be the last. It’s by no means common, but it does happen.
That being said, this is one of the worst versions of this that I’ve ever seen. That’s because this was an incredibly close call. A vast majority of the time when this happens, the pilots quickly realize what’s going on, and come to a stop with room to spare.
In this case, the plane got to such a high speed that it was only able to come to a stop by ultimately skidding off the taxiway, damaging the plane.
This is a real head-scratcher. With the number of flights that operate every day, some incidents are bound to happen. Still, runways and taxiways look completely different in terms of their lighting, so it’s amazing that neither of the two pilots realized something was wrong when they started their takeoff roll.
It’s bad enough for this to happen in the first place, and to quickly realize the mistake. But to accelerate for that long, only to then run out of taxiway is really puzzling.
Bottom line
An SAS Airbus A320neo tried to take off from a taxiway at Brussels Airport. The pilots lined the plane up with a taxiway parallel to the runway, accelerated the aircraft, and it reached 107 knots before they aborted the takeoff.
The issue is, the taxiway was much shorter than the runway, so the pilots found themselves in a really rough spot, where they neither had sufficient distance to stop with a safety margin, nor did they have enough distance to take off. So the plane ended up skidding off the runway, forcing an evacuation.
It’ll be fascinating to see what an investigation into this incident reveals.
What do you make of this SAS A320neo takeoff mess?
