An air carrier pilot suggested that small runway identification numbers be painted on runways at ent...

Attributes
ACN	896398
Time
Date	201006
Place
Locale Reference	ATL.Airport
State Reference	GA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Takeoff
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Engineer Flight Crew Rotorcraft Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 30000 Flight Crew Type 7000
Events
Anomaly	No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types

Narrative:

Each airline; including mine; requires runway identification and confirmation before taking off. The problem is that we often takeoff on runways with displaced thresholds. I know that you can verify heading but you can't see the runway number. This was a contributing factor in a recent airplane accident. It couldn't take that much paint to paint the runway number in a place that could be seen by the pilots when in position for takeoff. We also often takeoff on parallel runways so a runway number would be final confirmation that we are on the proper runway. Day VFR may not pose too much of a problem; but night IFR with drizzling rain at an unfamiliar airport could. In atl we often use runway 9L M2 for takeoff. The runway number is behind the aircraft when in position for takeoff. This is my home airport so no problem; but for many pilots it is not a familiar airport; plus it has 5 parallel runways not counting taxiways. I think a small runway number painted in front of the aircraft on intersection takeoffs and displaced thresholds would add a margin of safety that do not have at this time.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier pilot suggested that small runway identification numbers be painted on runways at entry points other than runway ends in order to prevent wrong runway takeoffs.

Narrative: Each airline; including mine; requires runway identification and confirmation before taking off. The problem is that we often takeoff on runways with displaced thresholds. I know that you can verify heading but you can't see the runway number. This was a contributing factor in a recent airplane accident. It couldn't take that much paint to paint the runway number in a place that could be seen by the pilots when in position for takeoff. We also often takeoff on parallel runways so a runway number would be final confirmation that we are on the proper runway. Day VFR may not pose too much of a problem; but night IFR with drizzling rain at an unfamiliar airport could. In ATL we often use Runway 9L M2 for takeoff. The runway number is behind the aircraft when in position for takeoff. This is my home airport so no problem; but for many pilots it is not a familiar airport; plus it has 5 parallel runways not counting taxiways. I think a small runway number painted in front of the aircraft on intersection takeoffs and displaced thresholds would add a margin of safety that do not have at this time.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

An air carrier pilot suggested that small runway identification numbers be painted on runways at entry points other than runway ends in order to prevent wrong runway takeoffs.