Narrative:

Boeing field has a very unique and complicated airspace so in anticipation a controller was sent over to help brief the [unfamiliar] pilots on what to be careful of and come up with a plan for their flights that would meet their goals but work without crazy airspace and traffic. We also made sure to have the local positions split because even when it wasn't busy we understood that these unfamiliar pilots could require a lot of concentration and careful watching. Sure enough an aircraft was cleared to land. That plane had already done several flights but somehow he got confused and landed on taxiway bravo. I noticed it as he was about to touch down. The local west controller didn't send him around which I think was best because there was no traffic on bravo and the pilot was flared and in a critical phase of flight. I think it would have been dangerous at that point to hurry and push a go around. The pilot taxied back to parking and called the tower. He realized what he had done and was humiliated and apologized.I'm not exactly sure what could be done to prevent this. Boeing field has complex airspace and close runways that I think are intimidating to unfamiliar pilots. Because the east runway is only half the length of the west runway and taxiway alpha wraps around and lines up with 13L; it is not uncommon for unfamiliar pilots at alpha 9 intersection to become confused; assuming they are holding short of 13L. When they hear that they are cleared for takeoff on 13R occasionally they will cross over 13R and turn and line up on bravo for takeoff. Sometimes they try to taxi on the access road next to bravo. We realize that it's confusing and we stay vigilant at bfi and help them. In this case I think the unfamiliar pilot trying to work in a new environment and worry about complex airspace issues and still provide a quality flight he was volunteering to fly just lead to a silly simple error.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BFI Tower Controllers reported a GA pilot landed on a taxiway.

Narrative: Boeing Field has a very unique and complicated airspace so in anticipation a controller was sent over to help brief the [unfamiliar] pilots on what to be careful of and come up with a plan for their flights that would meet their goals but work without crazy airspace and traffic. We also made sure to have the local positions split because even when it wasn't busy we understood that these unfamiliar pilots could require a lot of concentration and careful watching. Sure enough an aircraft was cleared to land. That plane had already done several flights but somehow he got confused and landed on taxiway Bravo. I noticed it as he was about to touch down. The local west controller didn't send him around which I think was best because there was no traffic on Bravo and the pilot was flared and in a critical phase of flight. I think it would have been dangerous at that point to hurry and push a go around. The pilot taxied back to parking and called the tower. He realized what he had done and was humiliated and apologized.I'm not exactly sure what could be done to prevent this. Boeing Field has complex airspace and close runways that I think are intimidating to unfamiliar pilots. Because the east runway is only half the length of the west runway and Taxiway Alpha wraps around and lines up with 13L; it is not uncommon for unfamiliar pilots at Alpha 9 intersection to become confused; assuming they are holding short of 13L. When they hear that they are cleared for takeoff on 13R occasionally they will cross over 13R and turn and line up on Bravo for takeoff. Sometimes they try to taxi on the access road next to Bravo. We realize that it's confusing and we stay vigilant at BFI and help them. In this case I think the unfamiliar pilot trying to work in a new environment and worry about complex airspace issues and still provide a quality flight he was volunteering to fly just lead to a silly simple error.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.