Malaysia Airlines almost landed at the wrong airport

[jetjockey696]

detikNews : Otoritas Bandara Selidiki Malaysia Airlines yang Hampir Salah Mendarat (http://news.detik.com/read/2013/05/20/223114/2251238/10/otoritas-bandara-selidiki-malaysia-airlines-yang-hampir-salah-mendarat#main)


I tried to translate the text... all i got was a badly word translation...
I hope some indonesian or malaysian person would translate it properly...

This time it was pilot error Malaysia Airlines (MAS). The plane landed in Kuala Namu International Airport in North Sumatra (North Sumatra).

Airport Authority chief Abdul Hani Region II states is still investigating this case. The collection is being carried out in-depth information.

"There had landed. Term only approach or approach, we are investigating the cause," said Abdul Hani told AFP in Medan, Monday (05/20/2013) night.

Information obtained said the incident occurred on Saturday (05/18/2013) at around 15:30 pm. The aircraft suddenly entered the airspace Kuala Namu Airport and was ready to descent to the runway.

Aware of the possibility of landing one of the planned location, pilots fly the plane back. Suspected Malaysian Airlines plane was flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and should have landed at Polonia Airport in Medan.

Kuala Namu International Airport is located in the district in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, in fact not yet in operation. New limited operations will begin next July. The airport will replace the central Polonia Medan.

[vctenderness]

BOAC actually did at least twice in my time! Pan Am put a 707 down at the wrong airport in, I think Delhi, and it could not leave again so was broken I seem to remember.

[blind pew]

And of course Ryanair in northern ireland with an irish captain.

[fireflybob]

Blind pew, to be fair that flight was operated by eirjet - I believe the Captain was ex Aer Lingus

[Jay Doubleyou]

Much closer to (my) home than Delhi! It was London! Pan-Am managed to get a 707 into Northolt by mistake. It took a lot more effort to get it out again, even striped down and on minimum fuel! About 1964/5 ish. and was the origine of the famous "Gasholder" Navigation System!

Not a rare occurrence in the UK in the sixties. Some, including some probably including more hearsay than fact, examples were;

a) numerous attempts to "go" for Nutts Corner after it closed, replaced by nearby and parallel Aldergrove, and one, I did witness, at Langford Lodge, a small airfield between Aldergrove and Lough Neagh.

b) At least one "big jet" line-up, at night, with Ardrossan High street, a misleading parallel north of Prestwick.

c) An actual landing at the disused military base at Honiley south of Birmingham, conversation along the lines of;
BEA-line "Birmingham Tower, I don't see any marshaller, Old Boy"
ATC "Well, actually, we don't see any Viscount, OLD BOY"
BEA-line "oh ****".

[perantau]

From the linked article, last para - distance between Kuala Namu & Medan Polonia is 5nm, in-line (similar runway alignment?) & from Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Namu is encountered first.

[lastbirdy]

For info in the early 90's a DC-10 landed in Brussels instead of Frankfurt but...
Same configuration of runways at both airports and an obvious callsign confusion from ATC.
So sure pilots make mistakes but usually something else goes wrong (Equipment, ATC,...)

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

When Heathrow had a runway 23 the intercept heading was often the heading for Northolt's runway. It wasn't unusual to get a "runway in sight" call when what they saw was Northolt.

[smiling monkey]

Seems like the new Medan airport is located near the coast. The existing airport, Polonia is well inland and right in the heart of the city. Can't see how you can mistake one for the other especially with the calibre of flight management computers and their associated navigational systems available to them these days.

This is a photo of the new airport at Medan. The surroundings look vastly different from Polonia. And the fact that there's hardly anyone around should have been a dead give away.

http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/tt347/Wilz_Photos/6a8b641c-6312-4617-a263-d7c2b0e457c7_zps3537d3e7.jpg

[pax britanica]

Given the location of the Gasometer north of LHR any aircraft low enough trying a visual approach to the old LHR 23 might be forgiven for thinking it was actually Delhi - (thats a humourous observation for any west london ppruners)