eirjet landing at wrong airport - report out today

[747boy]

http://www.unison.ie/breakingnews/index.php3?ca=9&si=104353

A report out today says the pilot of an Eirjet flight that landed at the wrong airport in Derry last year was unaware of the existence of the second facility.
The Dublin-based flight, operated on behalf of Ryanair, should have landed at Derry Airport, but instead touched down at Ballykelly airfield five miles away.

Today's report by British investigators says the crew of the Airbus A320 had problems with their landing instruments and requested permission to make a visual landing at Derry.

It says the captain tried in vain to obtain a copy of the airport charts and would have been aware of the existence of Ballykelly airfield had he been successful.

However, he didn't know there was a second airfield and assumed when he saw it that it was Derry Airport.

[Algy]

It's here. (http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/publications/bulletins/january_2007/airbus_a320__ei_dij.cfm)

[nosewheelfirst]

"or pressing the go-around buttons"

its a :mad: airbus it does not have them...

[Crospaul]

As I am going to be starting my flight training soon (ppl), I was wondering do you think it is easy to land at the wrong airport? The airport layout is so similar though...

[Cyrano]

As I am going to be starting my flight training soon (ppl), I was wondering do you think it is easy to land at the wrong airport? The airport layout is so similar though...
Welcome to PPRUNE, Crospaul!
You'll find a lot of opinions about landing at the wrong airport on the original thread which discussed this incident, here. (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=219465) PPRUNE has a pretty good search function (on the yellow bar at the top of the screen) so you can find out whether your question has already been addressed. Enjoy!

[parkfell]

No doubt your instructor will give appropriate guidance in time.
Learn from other peoples' mistakes - you will not live long enough to make them all yourself.
Things just conspired against them resulting in their error. If only the chain could have been broken at some point to prevent the incident.
There but for the grace of God go I.
ps. Somewhat stormy in sunny Troon today.

[Kalium Chloride]

Every good lie is 80% truth. Once you think you know what you're doing, your own sense of conviction is capable of carrying you the extra 20%. And that's when you're in trouble. Awareness, all the time, is everything.

[Crospaul]

Thanks guys:ok:

[Lou Scannon]

Crospaul:
I can now guarantee that I will never land at the wrong airport, but only because I have retired!

Like the man said-it can happen to any pilot.

[BOAC]

Slightly off-thread, but having read 'nosewheelfirst's' comment, "or pressing the go-around buttons"

its a :mad: airbus it does not have them...and for a 'pure-bred' Boeing pilot, how do you initiate a g/a in an Airbus if there is no button to press for g/a power? SURELY in the scarebus you do not have to do it..............manually..........?:eek:

[nosewheelfirst]

BOAC, just put the thrust levers in the TOGA detent and remember to pull back or if the autopilot is in let it to it for ya :ok:

[BOAC]

Ta! Fancy having to move levers?:uhoh: The Boeing is SOOO much more sophisticated............:)

[thecontroller]

out of interest..what happened to the crew? sacked? reprimanded? transferred to desk jobs? does anyone know?

[Basil]

Events can conspire . .
MANY years ago had radar positioning to an airfield for visual circuit.
Radar controller: "You are now downwind."
Basil looked right, saw runway and said "Thanks, changing to tower."
Calls all went normally and cleared to land.
Idly looking at ramp noticed numerous maritime aircraft.
Thinks: "They don't have Nimrods where I'm going!"
Oops, off we go with a sharp 180 right to Lossie . . to whom I'd been speaking but neither of us noticed that I wasn't in their circuit :\

Lou, Too right. If I could guarantee that I'd never touch an aeroplane again I could be really self-righteous :E

[Permafrost_ATPL]

Crosspaul,

Another thing I ALMOST learned the hard way in early PPL days is to carefully study the layout of an airport you've never been to. The one in question (in California) had a very narrow runway (25R), a wide one (25L) and an equally wide taxiway left of 25L. Having been cleared to land on 25R, I made a beautifully wind-anticipated turn towards... 25L (thinking 25R was the taxiway). And because the controller had delayed my base turn for traffic, I was too far to read the numbers... Once in sight of said numbers, I made a very embarassed call to the tower who just let me land on 25L. :ouch:

So check it's the right airport AND the right runway :)

P

[fireflybob]

When I joined BOAC as a sprightly Second Officer in 1970, the Boeing 707 had an item on the landing check which read "Airfield and Runway Identified and Crosschecked" to which the handing pilot had to respond XXXX airport Runway YY.

All I can add is that there, but for the grace of God .......

[pendrifter]

I seem to remember many years ago, an Air India pilot flying 707 (I think), landed at Northolt instead of Heathrow! He had seen the gasometers which were regularly used as a visual aid, unfortunately he went the wrong side and landed at Northolt. In order to get the 707 out, they had to strip out all excess weight, minimal fuel to hop over to Heathrow!
Shortly after, the word "NO" was painted in big letters on the offending gasometer! Hi-Tech:)

[ZFT]

It was actually a PanAm 707. Around 1960 I think. A Lufthansa 707 almost did the same thing shortly afterwards.

[alexban]

Many,many years ago we had an An24 which was landed at a helicopter base in Larnaca,instead of Larnaca airport.The military had moved the heli's on the grass ,to wash them,so the pilot mistakenly landed on the parking area....incredibly small strip of pavement.He was a bit confused by the surrounding fence,but jumped over it with no problem,just to be more confused by the military personnel which surrounded the airplane,making photo's.They couldn't believe a plane could land in that space.
Although the company marks were imediatelly covered (coming from a communist country),there were some photo's in the local newspapers,saying that " If you want to visit a NATO base fly with XXX "...
We did a lot of tests at home,with a similar aircraft,in order to find out exactly the max TOW to be able to take-off from there..
I also know of one crew landing a 707 in Beirut,on a rwy closed for working,scaring the hell out of the workers,and stopping meters away from the buldozers...they were used with that rwy,making many flights a month there,so...:hmm:
That was the golden age of aviation,a lot of fun flying...:}

[Ptkay]

The Turkish 737 from Antalia landed yesterday evening
at EPKS militarty base instead of EPPO Poznan airport.
(Flight SHY335)

In the EPPO charts there is a clear statment:

DO NOT MISTAKE KRZESINY aerodrome
13.8 km (7.4 NM) SE OF POZNAN / Ławica
WHEN APPROACHING RWY 29

Unfortunately passengers held for almost 3 hours by military.

More here:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=239414

[Half_Cuban]

Ta! Fancy having to move levers?:uhoh: The Boeing is SOOO much more sophisticated............:)
Nah........they're both operated with switches, it's just that the airbus las lever operated switches !

[sir.pratt]

many years ago a euro operator's 747 lined up for finals on Auckland's George Bolt Drive - that runs at 90 degrees to the runway, but at least it would have finished up near the terminal.....

[Kolibear]

ISTR than many years ago, Gatwick was having the main runway resurfaced and aircraft were using the parallel runway, which I believe is currently used as a taxiway. An aircraft was cleared to land "on the taxiway, to the side of the runway".

And the aircraft did land, on the taxiway that is next to the runway that is next to the runway that was being resurfaced.

Its a ittle narrow............

[WHBM]

ISTR than many years ago, Gatwick was having the main runway resurfaced and aircraft were using the parallel runway, which I believe is currently used as a taxiway. An aircraft was cleared to land "on the taxiway, to the side of the runway".
And the aircraft did land, on the taxiway that is next to the runway that is next to the runway that was being resurfaced.
Its a ittle narrow............
You've got the basic gist of it. It was firstly a British Island One-Eleven, then later an Air Malta 737 did the same thing.

Both times at night, both times when on easterlies. The real issue was the lighting on the main runway was switched off, while the main taxiway/emergency runway was lit up as a runway, changing the perspective of everything.

[Monarch Man]

Which is why Taxiway "J"uliet has a big old kink in the centreline lighting :ok:

[theamrad]

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have the relevant chart for Derry city - I'm just wondering what the min height for circling(A320) is?

[737TG]

North of Runway 08/26 720' (698') @ 180Kts.
South of Runway 08/26 1710' (1688') @ 180Kts.

[DB6]

It strikes me that the comments on these charts 'do not mistake X for Y' would be a bit more useful if they were more specific e.g. 'the approach for Rwy 26 at Derry is over water'. Telling you not to mistake one place for another doesn't actually help much when you think about it, but telling crews to expect water in the undershoot would almost certainly have prevented this incident.

[theamrad]

Thanks a lot, 737TG. Can put better perspective on the event report now.

[visibility3miles]

Crospaul, yes it is possible to land at the wrong airport. I learned to fly in Northern California where you spend a lot of time looking out the window watching out for other aircraft. I started flying out of the Hayward airport (HWD) which has two parallel runways in a heavily built up area, so they look like another set of roads and the airport is hard for a novice to spot.

During my very first flight lesson, we could hear the tower talking to a student pilot trying to make a solo cross country to HWD, and they were lost. A small plane cut across in front of us, and my instructor picked up the radio to tell the tower, "I think I know where the student is..." Sure enough, it was them, and the tower was able to direct them safely to the ground.

People have landed on runways undergoing paving/construction by mistake because they failed to notice the big "X" on the runway.

The Lodi Airport, California, has a busy dopzone. The DC-3 that carries jumpers lands in one direction, picks up skydivers from one end of the runway, turns around, and takes off in the opposite direction to save time. It does announce what it's doing, but one day I was flying there and heard a student pilot calling in to announce their plans to land. They were apparently oblivious to the dropzone and weren't monitoring the frequency, so were planning on a straight in approach to the runway in the opposite direction from the departing DC-3. When they finally saw the DC 3 pilot they chickened out and left. I spoke to the DC3 pilot about it afterwards, and he said he was wondering if they would notice before he had to take evasive action.

So, plan your flights in advance and pay attention! Good luck and have fun!

[Roleary780]

With regard to this question,
Both members of Flight Deck continued to operate as normal after some questioning by the IAA,
However the Cpt - with many years of flying experience on Airbus & Boeing aircraft
a lovely man and was a pleasure to work with him. :D

[seacue]

A chartered 757 is reported to have landed on RWY 9 (5317-ft) at TJIG (Isla Grande, San Juan, Puerto Rico) instead of RWY 8 (10002-ft) at the main airport TJSJ. TJIG is 6 miles before TJSJ on that approach and roughly in line. Google Earth is your friend.

The aircraft was said to be full of cruise-ship pax. And TJIG was too short to allow takeoff with that load. And there were no stairs tall enough for the 757. And it was rush hour and took a long time to drive stairs over from TJSJ.
Red faces, no doubt.

[Callsign Kilo]

I believe the same thing almost happened at Belfast Aldergrove during the summer when the Spanish Airline, 'Futura,' who were operating a wet lease for EasyJet, incorrectly identified an unlicenced airfield (Langford Lodge) to the West of the 07 centreline and came within 200ft of landing at it!
This was after the ATIS at Aldergrove had alerted the Spanish crew of it's presence along with the approach charts for EGAA clearly stating Langford's position. They were also supposidly flying the VOR/DME procedure for 07. Incidently the runway is always maintained lit, regardless of the wx, due to the proximity of Langford Lodge. Just to add, the weather was reported as CAVOK on the day of the incident.
It really does show you that awareness is everything. Or maybe it is airfields in Northern Ireland that are the problem!

[Earthmover]

pendrifter, you are nearly right .. Air India was involved in one runway mis-idendification incident at Northolt and did a go-around, as did Lufthansa as ZFT wrote. The problem arose when RW23 was in use at LHR. The gasholders, one near Harrow (for Northolt) and one in Southall (for LHR) were of an unusual shape, but were identical and, I surmise, added to visual confirmation that they were lined up for the correct runway. Strangely, I later met the LHR controller in the PanAm incident when I was learning to fly.

I know a bit about this because I was there!! I saw both the Air India and Lufthansa go-arounds ('overshoots' in those days) but not for the Pan Am though - I was at school at the time.

[Earthmover]

Report on the incident referred to by Callsign Kilo

http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/publications/bulletins/december_bulletin/boeing_737_300__ec_juc.cfm

(I don't know how you do that 'report here ' thing)

[PAXboy]

With that potential for confusion between Northolt, the A4 and EGLL, am I right in remembering that there was a warning sign painted on the roof of one of the gas holders? Mebbe it is a folk legend ... :8

[Airbanda]

The Southall gas holder, adjacent to the Paddington/Bristol main railway line, still carries the letters LH and an arrow in the direction of runway 23 on the outside close to the top. Don't know if the South Harrow counterpart with letters NO remains extant; remember puzling over their origin when living in the area circa 1980.

[llondel]

I've just consulted Google Earth and I can't see any trace of a gas holder in/around South Harrow, does it exist any more? Also, what I'm guessing is the Southall one (three holders by the railway line) has no helpful markings on the top. One looks a bit rusty, another might have been freshly painted.

However, there's no clue as to when that picture was taken.

[Danny]

Closed due to the take-over of the thread by enthusiasts, spotters and PPL's. :ugh: