[tajen]

Can you see the X at the beginning of the runway while sitting in the pilot seat? I was told the pilots' eyes are expected to be at mid-windshield height, but pilots prefer their seats in slightly reclined position and no position is compulsory.

[dmurray]

It's meant to be seen when approaching the disabled runway, not as a generic landmark to help the pilots orient themselves. So it's not prominently visible when approaching the taxiway.

[phkahler]

>> Can you see the X at the beginning of the runway while sitting in the pilot seat?

On approach you should be looking at the threshold and the numbers. That's right around where the X was, so it would be clearly visible to anyone trying to land on the closed runway. They were not trying to land on that one, and since they were over the taxiway the X was actually two "lanes" away from where they were. I don't think the X is terribly relevant to what happened here.