MountainBear & Babablackship:
Somehow I don't think automation over dependence or lack hand flying skills have much to do with landing at the wrong airport!
It seems that you both have some axe to grind regarding these two issues? Well that other thread is still there and available for you to provide your opinions...
And by the way, visual approaches are a vital ATC capacity tool as well as saving considerable fuel and flight time when conditions permit. 2 minutes here, 3 minutes there, pretty soon you're talkin' real money! Actually in KLAS and a few other places, the time saved can be much more.
pattern_is_full:
I'll buy the expectation error argument as a contributing factor though. Good call. It at least aligns with my own experiences. What puzzles me is why a pilot doesn't verify what they
think they know when there are readily available means of verification at their fingertips. Do they also accept that the gear is down and locked simply because the handle is down? I would presume that at least one of them
usually looks at the indicators before believing that. Same thing for most flying tasks I'd say. Crosscheck and verify. So what is it? Distraction? Overconfidence? Sloppy attitude toward flying? All of the preceding and more?
Hey I realized pretty early in flying that I'm pretty good but not perfect! Even my own hard bitten and suspicious nature has temporarily failed me on occasion. I've been tempted by the wrong airport or runway quite a few times. But only very briefly until the "hey that don't seem right" moment that results from crosschecking. And all those taxiways that look better from the air than the runway! KSEA had a bunch of oopsies there. KLAS too. Big Xs and serpentine taxiway center lines seem to help somewhat. Yeah even though I love to hand fly visuals, tuning an ILS or loading a GPS approach seems like cheap insurance to me.
And what about the other guy sitting along side? Man or mouse, squeak up! Take part in the process! Even though it might not be your turn to fly, be a pilot, a good PNF. So there's all these opportunities to trap errors like landing at the wrong airport, yet it still continues to happen. If nothing else maybe it serves to inspire everyone else to be a little more aware. Maybe they crosscheck even if they're a little tired and don't think it's strictly necessary. I sure hope so.