The VC10 Sharjah incident was Dubai. Approaching Dubai from the east they were cleared overhead the airfield then a 270 degree turn to the left onto finals. Unfortunately there was a very strong westerley wind, so when they rolled out of the turn they were nicely lined up with Sharjah.
After landing, having realised their mistake, they contacted Sharjah tower and got permission for an immediate take-off. On arriving at Dubai they kept the flight deck door closed while they completed the paperwork for the 'extra' sector.
Both airfields were very different places in the early 70's from the modern, busy places that they are today.
Dave
PS. Speedbird48 is correct in that they turned around at the end of the runway and took off in the other direction. They were forgiven for the incident due to the very long duty day that they had completed. The story was told to me by the captain (LH).
Last edited by Captain Airclues; 1st Jul 2009 at 23:22.
Reason: To add PS