Like most incidents or accidents there are certainly many ways to diagnose the said issue. I certainly had fun during my P.P.L. landing at the smaller twin of an international airport….but the best I came across was a couple of A.T.P.L. pilots all doing the same gig into an Afghan airfield near Khost Salerno.
First chap after having been warned about the two co-located airfields ( with different runway headings ), rocks up at the pub that evening reciting how he was welcomed by some rather well armed irate C.I.A. chaps after landing at the wrong airfield.
Months later, second chap is in the pub reciting how he did a touch and go at the same C.I.A. strip as he noticed the same grumpy looking chaps coming out to see who the unannounced visitor was.
Months later, I of course was not so stupid. I merely did a go-around and broke off to join the correct strip on downwind. Luckily by then, I think the same grumpy chaps had become so use to even the Mi-8 crews landing there, they most probably did not care anymore.
So while I sat in the pub wondering whether it was the poor viz, pushing to make time, workload or just plain stupidity that led me down the same garden path, I realized the best way to avoid the mistake was to tell the story to the next bunch of new guys.
For all the checks and balances in a system, the human brain does have a proverbial penchant for misidentification, whether it is visual, touch or audible.
Just ask me…..my wife is not as pretty as when I first met her, she does not feel the same and damn, I just can’t hear her anymore….
