As I mentioned earlier, RADAR services for both the Rapid City airport and Ellsworth AFB are provided by Ellsworth. In that I live my life on the same side of the mic as those tower and approach folks, I am more than a little curious as to how this could have slipped by two towers and an approach controller. Don't get me wrong... there but for the grace of God... I'm just wondering whether any ATC person might have seen this and thought, "what the hell?"
Update...
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Plane Landing Catches Runway Painters By Surprise
6/21/2004 5:04:49 PM
Bill Sutton
By now you\'ve probably heard about the off course airliner that grabbed national headlines Saturday by landing on an Ellsworth runway. But what you don\'t know, is what happened while the plane was coming in.
Today three runway painters count themselves very lucky to be alive. Mike Palmer was one of the three painters repainting the runway\'s navigational stripes when they noticed the plane descending. At first they thought it was a fly-over, but when they saw the landing gear come down…they knew there was a problem.
The painters did not receive any advance warning since Ellsworth Air Force Base thought the plane was landing at Rapid City Regional Airport as scheduled.
For security reasons the 117 passengers aboard were forced to stay on the plane for nearly four hours and have since be given free airfare tickets as compensation.
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Not in sight, runway 32, cleared to land. A pleasant reminder...