If you know what "77W" stands for, I have a job for you

[Winglets747]

You could be an air traffic controller at LAX.

LOS ANGELES—A new aircraft designation tag has been blamed for assignment of a giant All Nippon Airways Boeing 777-300 jetliner to a too-short Los Angeles International Airport taxiway.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday the All Nippon jetliner arriving from Tokyo had a "B77W" data designation tag. The new international designation wasn't recognized by LAX controllers on June 19.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor says it doesn't appear anyone in the Los Angeles tower knew what the new B77W data tag meant.

Gregor says the pilot was directed to a taxiway that was too short to handle the massive aircraft, causing part of the plane to protrude five feet into the 205-foot safety zone around one of the northern runways.

An American Airlines MD-83 aircraft then landed on the north airfield and rolled past the All Nippon Airways plane.

Gregor says it's considered to be a runway incursion even though there was no chance that jetliners would have collided.

(My emphasis) http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9718451

At this rate, they should about the 77L (777-200LR) in 2010.

[PHL Approach]

Now that is just plain dumb. If the company had filed it correctly (B773) then there would have been no problem. Repeat after me, in ATC Aircraft ID's are used not Airline ID's. I would like to see the look on a Final Controllers face when he goes to give a pointout to some traffic and the tag says 73S (Remember that one?)

[njgtr82]

Now that is just plain dumb. If the company had filed it correctly (B773) then there would have been no problem. Repeat after me, in ATC Aircraft ID's are used not Airline ID's. I would like to see the look on a Final Controllers face when he goes to give a pointout to some traffic and the tag says 73S (Remember that one?)

Exactly right, and it is important such as in the cases of 757s with the increased separation for the 300's. Also at EWR for instance the older modeled 747s get different climbouts because of their bad climbing performance.

[DHG750R]

From what I can see the use of B77W or H/B77W is fairly common. Im at work now and the computer blocks me from doing certain things, I will post a picture of a flightaware page and flight tracker I also use that shows quite widespread use of the B77W code. While I am not saying it makes it right, What would prevent the LAX controller from simply making a visual ID or asking the crew to confirm aircraft type

[USAF Pilot 07]

Wouldn't standard procedure in the case of an unknown type of aircraft be to assume that it's the largest type of that aircraft - i.e. Treat it like the "worst case" scenario. That way, if the aircraft does turn out the be the largest of it's type, there would be no instances like this, and no one is left holding the bag...

[T-Bird76]

Wouldn't the fact that the call sign "ANA" tell them that its a "big" plane....?

[nwafan20]

Other than that, the 77W call sign has now been adapted worldwide for ATC (15 foot wider wingspan than the standard 773), someone should have alerted them to that....

[PHL Approach]

Other than that, the 77W call sign has now been adapted worldwide for ATC (15 foot wider wingspan than the standard 773), someone should have alerted them to that....

Yea... the FAA. They keep their workforce informed all the time. yeah.. right.

[SengaB]

Many of these controllers are not well versed on things that go on outside of their tower. Just take a little common sense and some initiative figure it out. "its just a job"
Senga