I agree, it’s not hard to get lost at a complex airport especially during night and rainy conditions with poorly marked taxiways or no markers for that matter. There have been times where I sought the assistance of the ground controller to help me find my way rather than creating havoc or conflicts. The controller may be irritated, but I remind him that at the end of the day his help will save us both a lot of unnecessary paperwork.
I still find it difficult to understand how an error in landing at a wrong airport can occur if proper briefings are accomplished, available naviads are tuned and used as a reference during visual approaches.
It’s a fact that a breakdown in disciplines do result in disastrous outcomes. Case of the CRJ departing Lexington KY on the wrong runway a couple of years back resulting in deaths at the hands of competent airmen. No final compass check after taking the runway… something so simple. Another needless tragedy was when an American Airlines B757 crew ran a perfectly good jet into mountain crest because they were out to lunch… Not verifying the waypoint of the fix they wanted to fly to for the approach.
Is anybody impervious to mistakes? Heck no!!! But as competently trained and qualified air crews we exercise CRM, SOPs along with situational awareness and proper disciplines to reduce such events that may result in a tea and biscuit fest with the CP or even worse premature death. At the end of the day passengers paying money for safe passage from Point A to Point B want to hear the line catchall phrase, “Yes… it can happen to anyone.” Check Airmen can't stress enough the importance of following porper procedures as set forth during training.