View Full Version : Air Ambulance lands at wrong airport...
An aircraft from Aero Dienst in Germany going to Norway was supposed to pick up a patient in KristiansAnd but ended up in KristiansUnd, some 350NM to the North. The flight to Kristiansand from Kristiansund took them 1hr and 6min in what I belive was a Dornier 328.
The patient was surprised at the long wait but is apparently ok.
Bearcat
15th Jun 2005, 18:58
so frickin what....this is like a tittle tattle forum for 15 yr olds. S/He went to the wrong airport with very similar names.....they didnt crash...they didnt wrap it around a pylon ...mission acomplished with a slight deviaition and the patient survivied. End of thread please.
Joyce Tick
15th Jun 2005, 19:31
I reckon Bearcat must have done the same thing once - he's so sensitive about smo's post!
rotornut
15th Jun 2005, 19:46
"a slight deviaition" :O
Clarence Oveur
15th Jun 2005, 20:10
Somehow I think the crew went to the airport they were told to go to.
And I agree Bearcat.
For the record I am not mocking anybody. Everything I wrote was a direct quote from the front page of Norways largest newspaper.
We have all made mistakes. I belive there was a lesson to be learned. One different letter in the name of the place was enough to cause a serious navigational error.
xetroV
15th Jun 2005, 20:23
If it was a navigational error. Wouldn't surprise me if this mistake was not made during actual flight, but earlier in the planning phase (i.e., when filing the flightplan).
Carnage Matey!
15th Jun 2005, 20:23
I would suggest that there wasn't a navigational error at all. Presumably a route was decided upon, a flight plan was filed and the crew followed that flight plan accurately to the place they intended to go to. The fact that where they intended to go wasn't the same place as where they were needed has nothing to do with the navigational skills of the crew. I'm with Clarence on this one. I'd wager they went to exactly the place they were told to go to.
You Gimboid
15th Jun 2005, 20:29
In cognitive terms no worse than a passenger using an online ticket booking service to fly to GERONA (Spain) and booking GIRONA (Italy) instead.
German crew, chartered by an insurance co, told to go to Kristiansund, Norway. Can't blame them really, sounds like duff ops to me.
eastern wiseguy
15th Jun 2005, 20:33
We had an AMBULANCE turn up at the wrong Belfast airport for a hospital flight last week ....is that news too?:confused: :confused: good grief!!
I guess planning error would be a better term. It's not like ATC would let them stray off course 350NM without mentioning anything.
RatherBeFlying
15th Jun 2005, 21:45
Some years ago, a 12-year old boy was UM to Oakland, CA on an ANZ flight that stopped at San Diego. He stayed aboard after the Kiwi accented announcement that the next stop was Oakland to his ears -- and overnighted in Auckland:O
Someone messed up during the planning phase, no harm done.
Oshkosh George
15th Jun 2005, 22:00
Maybe it isn't earth shattering news,but can't see any reason for a response like Bearcat's.
He should maybe be Bearwithsorehead!
Daifly
15th Jun 2005, 22:12
Palma / Parma.
It's all been done before!
There but for the grace of God and all that...!
aeroconejo
15th Jun 2005, 22:45
this site is degenerating into spotters 'r'us
huh!
aero:suspect:
False Capture
15th Jun 2005, 23:31
Last week supporters of the Irish national football team arrived at Dublin airport in shorts, t-shirts and sombreros for their flight to the Faroe Islands. They thought their team were playing football in Faro.:confused:
punkalouver
16th Jun 2005, 00:07
350 miles is a long distance. I notice that the Jeppesen charts emphasize the differences between their names i guess to prevent the wrong chart from being used. KristiansAND and KristiansUND
compressor stall
16th Jun 2005, 00:35
The how far the towns are apart has no bearing on the issue. Told to go to either, and you make plans...it could have been as far away as aalesund, so what.
I have done the same thing. I used to fly air ambulance, and I do remember planning and heading off somewhere, and once airborne giving ops my eta. Fortunately they were on the ball and queried it (seemed a bit long), and I confirmed it back. Then ops queried that I was headed for XXXXXXX airport, then I replied, "no you told me to go to XXXXXXXY" (very similar name - 2 letters different).
Such incidents are surprisingly commonplace and have NO safety related aspects as the aircraft is always correctly fuelled and navigated to its destination. The events are hardly newsworthy :yuk:
Then there was the time in outback oz when the pax queried where I was going...to XXXX I was told...and even produced the manifest from ops with XXXX on it. Much confusion, then the comment "we're to go to YYYY". No problem, except I had never been there before and it was not on any map of the area (too small).
Sheepishly I had to ask for directions.....
Konkordski
16th Jun 2005, 07:19
One believes that some participants in this thread would be less inclined to dismiss the original incident if they'd been the patient in question and if the medical condition had been a lot more serious. One suspects then that the familiar Two-Faced Rule on PPRuNe would then come into play.
Global Pilot
16th Jun 2005, 07:57
"German crew, chartered by an insurance co, told to go to Kristiansund, Norway."
The flight was probably booked by the insurance company directly or through a broker. Either way the operator would have signed off on paperwork for this charter. The paperwork would cleraly indentify the destination as ENKB and that is were they crew would flight plan for.
My guess is that the original error was made by the company that booked the charter. Operator most likely completed the flight as required and billed the insurance company for the additional flight required to position to the correct airport.
boris
16th Jun 2005, 09:22
About 15 years ago, a passenger checked in for a MANX Airlines flight from Dublin to Ronaldway.
Got it wrong on aircraft selection and boarded a Russian aircraft. Passenger in question finished up with a night in the slammer in MINSK!
No visa you see.
gingernut
16th Jun 2005, 09:25
The patient was surprised at the long wait but is apparently ok.
happens every day in the NHS
His dudeness
16th Jun 2005, 13:04
Given the attitude a certain high rankin, pipe smoking chap in AERO DIENST shows amongst other operators, I cannot refrain from feeling some malicious joy...
However, AD is probably on of the best operations in Germany and usually the pilots receive a flight order, containing all the information needed, from ops - they in turn usually get their stuff (orders) from ADAC (german car drivers club - like the AAA) in Munich.
Onan the Clumsy
16th Jun 2005, 16:07
When I first came to the jolly old US of A, I lived in New York, but I had to take a trip down to Dallas. I had a ticket, but it was a couple of hundred bucks. I called around asking for prices to Dallas and I managed to get one for about a hundred.
I was fortunate that I soon found out I was now booked to Dulles, which is in Washington DC.
That's how I know that the airport in Dallas is always called DFW and why I think Bearcat's response was appropriate. It's a very easy mistake to make and wasn't necessarilly made by the flight crew.
Daifly: I have been on the Palma/Parma once, where operations/sales made the error, we even warned that this customer would usually go to Palma, but they told us off. When I briefed the flying time, they thought it was unusually fast as what they were used to so that same operations got quite red ears.
Embarrassing, but it happens, and many airports of this world can be mistaken! Dakkar and Dhakar, Santiago (in both Spain and South America, possible in other countries as well) and the list goes on.
It seems quite obvious that the flight crew does not navigate 350 nm off, but that the planning of the trip has gone wrong seems more probable ...