The last sentence of the article especially tickled a little
In some reports, pilots said they were saved from making a wrong airport landing by an alert controller. That was the case for an MD-80 captain who nearly landed his mid-sized airliner at Page Field, a small airport in Fort Myers, Fla., used mainly by private pilots, instead of the much larger Southwest Florida International Airport nearby. A controller caught the mistake in time and suggested the captain explain the detour by telling passengers the flight was “touring downtown” Fort Myers.
“I was pretty shaken as to what could have happened and was very glad to have an understanding, helpful (controller),” the captain said. “They (controllers) said there would be no problem with (the FAA) and that this was a common occurrence.”
Why... it was written by a reporter, and the alleged quote from the captain is just that.
The crew quotes in the AP article seem to all come from anonymous NASA reports. The idea is that you will candidly share your misadventure with others and help prevent future mistakes. As an incentive, you are offered some protection from FAA enforcement actions:
c. Enforcement Restrictions. The FAA considers the filing of a report with NASA concerning an incident or occurrence involving a violation of 49 U.S.C. subtitle VII or the 14 CFR to be indicative of a constructive attitude.
Such an attitude will tend to prevent future violations. Accordingly, although a finding of violation may be made, neither a civil penalty nor certificate suspension will be imposed if:
1.The violation was inadvertent and not deliberate;
2.The violation did not involve a criminal offense, accident, or action under 49 U.S.C. § 44709, which discloses a lack of qualification or competency, which is wholly excluded from this policy;
3.The person has not been found in any prior FAA enforcement action to have committed a violation of 49 U.S.C. subtitle VII, or any regulation promulgated there for a period of 5 years prior to the date of occurrence; and
4.The person proves that, within 10 days after the violation, or date when the person became aware or should have been aware of the violation, he or she completed and delivered or mailed a written report of the incident or occurrence to NASA.
ASRS - Aviation Safety Reporting System
The anonymity is very questionable in the case of a major incident like the Southwest landing at PLK. News crews have harvested new details of a mishap from NASA reports and used 'sources have told Eyewitness News' to cover their tracks. The union safety folks always say file ASAP and NASA reports, 'it will protect you'. However in a couple of cases I'm familiar with the crew felt like details given in voluntary submissions were used to generate additional lines of attack from the feds.