Oops, wrong aerodrome!

[jollyrog]

BBC NEWS | Wales | North West Wales | New pilot lands at wrong airport (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/7483929.stm)

[ShyTorque]

Not the first time, surely won't be the last.

Many years ago I was based at a grass RAF airfield. ATC were closed for lunch (!) when a civvie light aircraft landed, taxied up to the tower and shut down in front of a row of Chipmunks and one of Bulldogs. The Boss went out, with his big hat on to "welcome" the visitor. It was a chap on his qualifying cross country. The Boss asked the pilot if he could help. Pilot said he wanted his logbook signing. Boss said, "I'm OC Flying, shall I write that you landed at RAF Newton by mistake?"

Pilot was most disbelieving and insistent that he was at Tollerton, his intended destination! The Boss pointed to the twelve foot high white letters on the hangar which said "RAF Newton". No, it can't be" said the pilot, "This is definitely Tollerton, they cleared me to land!

"OK", said the Boss, "What type of runway surface does Tollerton have?"
"Tarmac, of course" came the reply.
"And what did you just land on.......?"

The penny slowly dropped. :ooh: "Oops", said the pilot.

After phone calls to chap's flying club and Tollerton, all was sorted out amicably and a very embarrassed pilot was sent on his way, lesson learned, we hoped. ;)

[Mike Cross]

PFA Rally at Kemble

"Kemble G-XXXX can I have taxi instructions please?"
"G-XXXX You haven't landed yet"
"Yes I have"

Eventually established that he was at Aston Down

And just in case you think it's only "amateur pilots" who could so such a thing this page (http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html) has details of a few by airlines.

[Whirlygig]

Ballykelly/Eglinton, Norwich/Coltishall and, let's face it, one grand country home looks much like another!!

I feel for the chap, after all, some seasoned professionals have made the same mistake!

Cheers

Whirls

[PompeyPaul]

a very embarrassed pilot was sent on his wayDid he pass the XCQ ?

[chevvron]

Not an uncommon occurence anywhere two airfields are close together. Blackbushe and Farnborough for example; as Blackbushe has no approach lighting, the approach lights at Farnborough are switched on when the airfield is open, so if you're on final for 25 at Blackbushe and you have approach lights in front of you, look north west to see where you should be!

[Mike Cross]

On the other hand if you're doing a flypast at the Farnborough Air Show and don't see the lights, look South.
An American B52 bomber flew from America for a flypast at the Farnborough Air Show yesterday but picked the wrong airfield.

To the consternation of the announcer and spectators at the Hampshire airfield the US bomber could be seen over Blackbushe, five miles to the north-west.

Show organisers initially appeared confused by the non-appearance of the bomber. "It didn't fly over Farnborough," one said. "It flew over Blackbushe instead.

"You could just see it in the very clear distance. We don't really know what happened, it is being looked into."

They later issued a statement saying: "We can confirm that the Boeing B52H Stratofortress did not arrive at the airfield".


From the Daily Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1467470/US-bomber-misses-target-for-flypast-at-air-show.html) in 2004. I believe the flight originated in the USA and landed back there afterwards. I imagine the crew spent a few uncomfortable hours crossing the Atlantic while they contemplated the bo££ocking that awaited them on their return. Now what was that about the B52's precision bombing capabilities?

[SpeedbirdXK8]

Excellent Mike :D I just thinking of the same story. Oddly enough a friend of mine asked me the same question and my reply was "not yet!":ooh:

[chevvron]

Been done to death before. It did NOT get the wrong airfield; as he turned 90 deg inbound for his flyby at Farnborough, the handling pilot put on a large handful of throttle (8 engines don't forget) causing him to overshoot his lineup and make it appear he was going for Blackbushe. On this occasion he departed Fairford to fly to the US via Farnborough so he was carrying a lot of fuel too (probably re-fuelled en-route as well). On his return a couple of days later inbound Fairford, I lined him up to run in from the other end on a comparatively shallow closing heading there was no problem!
Now the B1b a couple of shows before was a different matter; Jamie wanted a close up view anyway.

[IFollowRailways]

About fifteen years ago now, but several friends had flown into "my" strip on a sunny Saturday afternoon. We were idly standing around, when a twin engine aircraft flew overhead, joined downwind, dropped the wheels and flew a circuit, turning finals into our 375 metre grass strip. We leapt around, waved, ran about some more and ended up watching in horror as this aircraft came to a slithery, sliding stop about 6 feet from the dyke at the end of the strip. It was so close to the dyke that it couldnt turn and had to be pushed back when shut down! The pilot had mis-identified our strip for a licenced airfield about 3 miles away from us and in spite of the different runway orientation and what must have looked horribly short runway, still went for it!

As the driver and his three passengers disembarked, much to our amusement, one of my friends asked him "So where do you think you have landed then?"

The aircraft had to sit on the field for several days before the wind got up enough and someone was brave enough to fly it out.......

[waldopepper42]

Some years ago, when there were a few more active RAF airfields around us, a friend of mine went on a jaunt to Wickenby.

Upon landing he asked the locals "Do you pronounce this place W-i-ckenby or W-eye-kenby?"

Said the uniformed, armed gentlemen who had just got out of a jeep:

"WE pronounce it: 'SCAMPTON!'"

:uhoh::uhoh::uhoh:

[DX Wombat]

Did he pass the XCQ ?As far as I know if you don't land at the designated places, and ONLY the designated places then it doesn't count.

[Sam Rutherford]

Colleague leading a two-ship of Lynx was asked by Duxford to do a fly-past en-route. This happened (happens?) regularly.

He got a little carried away, and both aircraft tore down the active at about 20ft.

Next thing he heard was Duxford asking when/if he was going to do the fly-past.

Cambridge City, in the meantime, were screaming blue murder and diverting their traffic frantically... ;)

He was an American on an exchange, he got a free visit to his embassy in London and narrowly avoided being recalled to the US. No sense of humour some people:)

Sam.

[eharding]

I understand that a trainee RAF QFI rolled to a halt at Sleap on a flight towards the end if his course, when the goal had actually been to land at Shawbury. The examiner in the back seat let him crack on with it, only enlightening the poor sod once he had come to a halt.

[ericferret]

An over enthusiastic controller at Soest (grass 700m) in the mid seventies began giving landing instructions to an overflying aircraft.

The said aircraft to wit one Lightning made a nice approach gear down before applying max power and departing with a barrel roll. Very impressive!!!!!

[pulse1]

Just read an amusing wartime story about an instructor and student who complete a night beam approach to land. The instructor got out and told the student to repeat it solo.

It turns out that they had landed at the wrong airfield. The student took off and completed another beam approach.......... to the right airfield, leaving his instructor stranded!

[BackPacker]

A little less amusing... During my flight training another student landed at the wrong airfield. He should be landing at a quiet uncontrolled airfield, made all the right calls (at the wrong frequency), landed, vacated and then sees a huge control tower blinking various colors lights at him. Oops.

Instead of taxiing to the tower, he panicked, whipped the aircraft around back onto the runway and took off again. Without looking at lights, without checking final, without clearance (obviously).

Rumour has it that a 737 on short final was not amused about having to go around.

On the way back, he called an en-route frequency for Flight Following. Instead of FF however, he got something along the lines of "Sonny, you've got pen & paper handy? Here's a telephone number I want you to call as soon as you've landed."

In the end I think he got off with some "remedial training" and apologies from both him and the school. But it was a tense few hours after he landed back at base.

[Pilot DAR]

Yup, done that. Here's the story (I had it written down already...)

I was 15 years old, and the guest of a very generous owner pilot, who had taken me along for the mid winter trip to Florida in his C150. We were on our way back, at night, over the mountains of western Maryland. The many errors in this plan were not yet apparent to an enthusiast with so little experience as I had. We were tracking a VOR route north. DME? No! (it was a 150!) (and long, long before civilian LORAN or GPS)

This worked very well, with one exception: In our eagerness, we never actually confirmed crossing any VOR's! After a time, I announced that I had our location figured out, and landing in Hamilton (Ontario) was our best plan. I could see the lights of the cities, and thought that the form of no light which was Lake Ontario had me all oriented. Not quite…

We called up Hamilton tower, and informed him of our intention to land. As it was now the middle of the night, and all wise Cessna pilots were safely tucked in their beds, we had the place to ourselves, and were cleared to land. So we headed down. Sure enough, and beautiful runway lay ahead. We reported the runway in sight , and landed. Somewhere between the time my host landed, and slowing down, I had this uneasy feeling and looked back, out the now very useful Cessna 150 back window.

To my tremendous alarm, I saw a Boeing 737, who had landed behind us, and was catching up really fast! I instructed my host to turn off the runway. He told me that we were not yet at the taxiway. What ever I said next convinced him that was of very minor importance at this moment! My next recollection was that of a Boeing 737 wingtip passing remarkably close to us, as we crowded the left snowbank, and rolled to a stop. I also was keenly aware of the incredible amount of snow which is thrown up by the Boeing’s engines hard in reverse. We were not hit.

Now, what had just happened there? We looked over at the tower, and saw a red light. It did not flash or anything, it just stayed on – for minutes! So, we just stayed where we were. The Boeing left the scene. After some time, a yellow pickup truck drove up to us, on the door was written “Buffalo Airport Authority” (New York). Things made a lot more sense now! We were told to follow him. We did.

When we parked. The driver told us, that the tower would like a phone call from the pilot. Once inside, my host made the call. It did not go well at all. He was being melted by an angry air traffic controller. Whatever transpired, resulted in my host handing the phone to me. The stern voice told me “Do you understand that your friend is in a lot of trouble?”, “Yes” I replied. A few questions in, we got to the “How old are you son?” part. I reported my age of 15. The controller rambled on for a while. Occasionally he asked my thoughts, as though they had value in this situation.

Along the course of the call, feeling a little put upon, I asked the question which had been growing in my mind: “We were squawking 1200, mode C the whole time, and were getting a return, did you not see us on radar?”. Well, that created a long pause….

He said “Put your friend back on the phone.” I complied. Whatever he said to my host then went not much farther than satisfying himself that we would not be flying again that night. Uh, No! The phone call ended. My host was completely perplexed at this point. We went to a hotel.

Nothing more was ever said to us. We took off the next day as though nothing had happened. I would have loved to be a fly on wall for the conversation between the controller, and the Boeing pilot. I bet there was some apologizing to the pilot. Bear in mind, this was decades before TCAS, so the Boeing pilot, who was doing an instrument approach, would have completely relied on the controller for traffic separation. Oops! I learned!

[mozzereggd]

I guess this would be the offending aircraft then! Was wondering why he was visiting...

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/mozzermorris/IMG_2295.jpg
http://www.pprune.org/forums/%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/mozzermorris/IMG_2295.jpg%5B/IMG%5D

[englishal]

A person I know did that....Except he mistook Tijuana in Mexico for Brown Field in San Diego.... a reallly big oops.

Luckily for him he had a spanish mate onboard who smooth talked the mexicans, they quickly departed and nipped over the border and landed before any American F16's could shooth them down.....

Very lucky not to get into serious trouble (no doubt crossing a US ADIZ without permission is punishable by a trip to Cuba - or was it Poland, I forget:=).

[Julian]

There is also the Marine Base next to McClellan Palomar whos name I forget, the area is designated 'Longrifle'. They are close to each other and runways are the same orientation, apparently a few new and experienced pilots have landed there and been met by a reception :eek:

J.

[no slots]

Years ago, at night I had a request for a straight in approach for rw 02 from an aircraft east of the airport which i duly approved. Aircraft reported final but didnt appear.Suddenly "going around" on the r/t followed rapidly by a phone call.Apparently said aircraft had made a low go around at the local dry ski slope 3 nm east of the field!!

[BEagle]

These events are always amusing in hindsight - just as long as no-one is hurt and only egos get bruised.

Such as the F3 giving a display over the wrong village, countless Dishforth/Leeming cock-ups by JP students, the Mirage IV attacking Rattlesden instead of Wattisham - and a narrowly avoided join at Withybush instead of Brawdy....by yours truly. Fortunately I spotted my error running in from the Initial Point (I'd identified the wrong old church...) and at 450 KIAS and about 5G I was able to pull hard enough to avoid the ATZ....just :ooh:!

No-one ever complained though...:=

But the chap who landed the highly secret F-117 at El Paso Muni instead of Biggs AAF didn't get off so lightly!

The Sleap/Shawbury cock-up was in 1975. A student on a dual training flight with his Sqn OC in the back was diverted to Shawbury due to the weather at Valley. On the PAR approach, his QFI told him to stop dicking about, took control and landed.

An unusual blue car stopped next to their Gnat. The Sqn OC asked what the hell it was doing there - the chap in the protoype Ford asked what the hell the Gnat was doing landing in the middle of a car testing session at Sleap.

The studes on the course were in the process of making a "WELCOME TO RAF ST MAWGAN" sign to welcome the Sqn OC back to RAF Valley, but were persuaded that this wouldn't be a very good idea!

[XL319]

I'm wondering if he had a herfty bill to pay (landing fee, insurance indemnity and security):}

Surely a pilot would have realised by looking at his map /outside that he was passing the menai strait (obviously not):ugh:

Very funny to read these stories :D

[DX Wombat]

Surely a pilot would have realised by looking at his map /outside that he was passing the menai straitHe was meant to be! He was diverting to EGOS. Sleap and Shawbury ATZs are only about one mile apart, the runways have the same orientation (if I remember correctly), Sleap lies partly within the Shawbury CMATZ and when landing at Sleap you have to talk to Shawbury first so it's probably a much easier mistake to make than some.

[bri1980]

Shawbury/Sleap error is made worse because the runway layouts are very similar. Valley and Caernarfon are not actualy that close to each other being separated by the Menai Strait and about 15 miles of land. There is also Mona between the two. It would seem to be an odd naviagational error!

I did my PPL at Caernarfon so I guess I'm more familiar with the area than this unfortunate guy was.

B