Wrong Airport oxford

[lrjt24]

Was it Gold Air that landed at the wrong airport last week in Oxford with passengers on board, taxied back (after realising they were at the wrong field) took off and landed at Kidlington to drop the pax, took off immediately and returned to Biggin? I heard about this through the grapevine in LFMN.

[Monkey Boy]

Brize Norton's not a million miles away either!

[lrjt24]

But Brize would not have allowed them to takeoff again.... Men in uniforms with big guns...

[Crosswind Limits]

As far as I know it wasn't Goldair and that's about all I am saying!

[Chinchilla.612]

If it was Abingdon, it certainly wouldn't be the first time!!!!

[Brizeguy]

Didn't Nigel Mansell do the same thing many years ago, landing his 125 at what was then RAF Abingdon (now Dalton Barracks)?

[Chilli Monster]

Not so many years ago (2002 I think), it was a Citation, and the airfield in question was already wearing the name "Dalton Barracks".

[checklist69]

sounds lke a Greggair stunt!


Surprisingly enough, it wasn't!

:p

'69

[chevvron]

One of Benson's runways is roughly the same QDM as the paved one at Kidlington, Abingdon's are considerably different; I would expect a pilot to notice wouldn't you?

[GBALU53]

Did he every have a 125?

The jet he was in that landed at the incorrect was a Citation 750 from Jersey:cool: :cool::sad: :sad:

[chevvron]

Mansell actually had a Jetstar for a long time; don't think he flew it himself though so you can't blame him.

[lrjt24]

Why try to hide it though and take off with the passengers? If I were those pax, I would have told the crew to leave me there and take a taxi. Crew took off from an unlicensed airfield with no performance numbers, no flight plan I assume, no plog. What were they thinking? why not admit defeat and call it in. So who was it? Must have been a Citation as the guys I was speaking to in Nice were 500 drivers and they seemed very familiar with it. When I asked them who they were working for they got all shy....

[airborne_artist]

What would the colour scheme be on said jet? Saw something most unusual departing Benson Thurs/Fri last week. Certainly not 125/Dominie.

[Chinchilla.612]

Chevvron,
Just curious as to the considerable difference in runway headings you mention?
Kidlington paved runway 01/19, Benson Paved runway 01/19, Abingdon main runway 36/18. Is up to 10 degrees really such a considerable difference?
I agree that it is a mistake which shouldn't be made by an experienced pilot, but the airfields are not that different from each other, which is, I suspect why the mistake has happened more than once?!
Just my opinion anyways.

[chevvron]

Sorry I was thinking more of Benson's 06/24, which is kept in good condition but notified as disused.

[Chinchilla.612]

Sorry Chevvron, I must be missing your point here then?
Benson disused runway 06/24, Abingdon short runway 08/26, Kidlington short paved runway 11/29? So wouldn't Abingdons' be a closer match than Bensons' in that case?

[chevvron]

For some reason I thought Oxford hard was 03/21 thus totally different from Abingdon; don't ask me why!

[Chinchilla.612]

Ah ok. No, 03/21 and 09/27 at Kidlington are grass......so if they'd made that kind of mistake.....they really did get it wrong lol.

To be fair though, Abingdons' plan view is really quite close to that of Kidlington in terms of runway orientations and building positions. Main differences are that Abingdon has more of a peri track, is on the other side of Oxford to Kidlington and is bigger in scale (Kidlingtons runway is only 2/3 the size of Abingdon).

[gulfstreamflyer2000]

I remember an incident a few years back when two Dassault test pilots nearly landed at abingdon instead of oxford when doing a demo for a customer. Only averted by one of the customers crew coming up and telling the flight deck oxford was still another 10 miles north.....

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Whatever the excuse, it's still totally unforgiveable. I worked at Kidlington for a year in the early 70s (hence the grey hairs) and don't recall anything like this occurring then. I do know of one operator who would land during the night using only Decca...... scary stuff but he always made it.

[airborne_artist]

I'm fairly sure that on the day in question the rw in use was 19, in which case the presence of Chalgrove directly underneath finals at about 4 miles out should have been a major clue.

Multimap aerial (http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cgi?client=public&X=465000.587570739&Y=195000.443600869&scale=100000&width=700&height=400&gride=463819.587570739&gridn=196859.443600869&lang=&db=freegaz&coordsys=gb) shot.

[PorcoRosso]

Whatever the excuse, it's still totally unforgiveable

Well, you know about the 2 sorts of pilots ? Those who did it, and the others who WILL do it ...

Personnally, I tend to forgive .... nobody injured, no airframe written off ...

[lrjt24]

Latest gossip is that it was a II from Stansted. Who is based there?

[Crosswind Limits]

Irjt24,

If your gossip source is credible I am sure you could work the rest out! :hmm:

P.S. It wasn't me! :}

[lrjt24]

I don't really know the operators of Citations well enough to make a calculated guess.

[Fried_Chicken]

Latest gossip is that it was a II from Stansted. Who is based there?

only one I can think of is LEA

Fried Chicken

[Bacon Slicer]

please guy's wake up - another Greggair stunt! par for the course.

[sinistar]

Well, you know about the 2 sorts of pilots ? Those who did it, and the others who WILL do it ...

What a sad cliched life you must lead Porco. If you stop and think about that comment you´d realise that´s a slurr on the vast majority of disciplined professional pilots out there who will in all probability never do anything like that. Not because they´re cocky overconfident pilots, but because as I said... disciplined and professional. Mistakes happen, but we´re not ALL going to make them.

and Bacon Slicer, I know a lot of Greggair crews have left but please, they were/are professional guys. You know, It could have been the management filling in. I mean, they were incompetant fools running a company maybe they´ve started flying aswell!

[G-SPOTs Lost]

Mr Sinistar

Some of the most professional and well disciplined pilots I know live their life by "There but for the grace of god go I".
Admittedly, personally I am perhaps more self critical, less self confident and try to avoid my mistakes by double checking myself and flying defensively - checking things twice ;) , the only difference is that you sound better in a bar.

I am a captain on the type of aircraft that alledgedly made the approach to the wrong airport. I am not sure what kind of aircraft you fly, but let me perhaps remind you that flying around trying on occasion to land on runways less than 1000m long in areas which are non radar surrounded by WWII disused airfields and cherokees, armed with a 1/2 mil map, an inexperienced co pilot, a single line late 80's vintage GPS and a 1970's vintage clockwork bizjet is not straightforward.

If you are a Efis equipped Airliner driving chappy who stumbles between radar enviroments then you cannot comment, If you are a GA chap you should know better. :=

[4HolerPoler]

Keep it nice please folks. If you feel personally aggrieved or just want to have a good old pot-shot at someone please do it by email or PM & keep it on topic.

Thanks. 4HP

[G-SPOTs Lost]

Indeed - apologies all round - post edited for "niceness" Ta :ok: 4HP

[fantaman]

One of Benson's runways is roughly the same QDM as the paved one at Kidlington, Abingdon's are considerably different; I would expect a pilot to notice wouldn't you?

Wasn't Benson!

[sinistar]

No offence taken G-SPOTs, but look at what I was replyig to and then your response. We don't ALL make mistakes. I wasn't criticising people who do make mistakes I was pointing out to Porco that we ALL aren't going to make that one. He was quite incorrect in his gross generalisation.
As for my experience it was formerly single seat fast jet and I've been into some hairy ass places that you couldn't even imagine. Now? Well I'm a biz jet driver with 10000+ hours and no doubt like you still learning and no, not in the bar ;)

[badboy raggamuffin]

surely you would notice you were at the wrong aerodrome due to the ATC?
When another aerodrome is addressed as Kidlington on first contact, someone should have spotted a fish.
Maybe the guy had never been there before, but still cant conceive how someone could make such a gross error.

[checklist69]

.... but still cant conceive how someone could make such a gross error.
There are those who have done it; and there are those who shall do it, or get very close to doing it.

Don't laugh too hard, my friend.

:hmm:

'69

[Farrell]

... still cant conceive how someone could make such a gross error.

Oh man! You have just sealed your fate! :ugh:

[lrjt24]

I did some more digging around and can now say that it was London Executive Aviation:= := := The CAA did find out and investigated, can anyone enlighten us on the action taken here?