Commercial Pilot Lands at Wrong Field

[AmericanFlyer]

Continental Connection Plane Lands At Wrong Louisiana Airport (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/09/continental-connection-pl_n_955358.html?ir=Weird%20News)

[ross_M]

Puzzles me. When they talk to ATC doesn't he smell a rat.:confused:

[skwinty]

The airfields are almost 15 km apart. Quite a large error. Apparently it is not the first time for these two fields either.

I wonder what happens to the pilot? If he is a senator he should get off lightly.:E

[westhawk]

This has happened many many times. Airlines typically require approach aids be used even for visuals to runways served by an IAP. Airplanes with GPS/FMS capability don't even need that for runway or airport ID. I can't explain why this keeps happening.

[pattern_is_full]

Amounts to seeing what one expects to see - especially at night. Expecting airport lights, some runway lights appear....

I was in San Juan when a 737 inbound for TJSJ saw the lights of TJIG (the smaller GA airport) right under his nose (but ~8 miles closer) and landed there by mistake. Both have lagoons on short final - runways are 9-27 for TJIG and 8-26 or 10-28 for TJSJ - so again, he saw what he expected to see.

One just has to be willing to always question the obvious and double-check everything (with ATC, GPS, any other information around).

[MountainBear]

I can't explain why this keeps happening.

Well, if you listen to all the cognoscenti in the umpteen AF447 threads it happens due to the lack of experience hand flying. That's also the position of the FAA and BEA and Boeing and Airbus.

I'm sure that if pilots would just get rid of their automation dependency, turn all the electronics off, and just fly the plane by good old fashioned 20-20 eyesight this type of incident would never ever happen.

[Babablackship]

Err......I think most of the landings at wrong airfields were done by self proclaimed " visual by the seat of the pants " hand flying aces!

I had one old former USAF manual flying ace making a visual approach into PGUA twice instead of PGUM! When I pointed those out to him, I had some really creative excuses! No word of thanks, no acknowledgement but really creative excuses and a grumbly demeanor throughout the next few days we were paired together.

[Ryan Bell]

Almost as bad as the RYR pilot who landed on a taxiway a few years back.

[EIDWSkypilot]

Or the one who landed at the wrong Derry airport...at least they all walked away

[westhawk]

MountainBear & Babablackship:

Somehow I don't think automation over dependence or lack hand flying skills have much to do with landing at the wrong airport! := It seems that you both have some axe to grind regarding these two issues? Well that other thread is still there and available for you to provide your opinions...

And by the way, visual approaches are a vital ATC capacity tool as well as saving considerable fuel and flight time when conditions permit. 2 minutes here, 3 minutes there, pretty soon you're talkin' real money! Actually in KLAS and a few other places, the time saved can be much more.

pattern_is_full:
I'll buy the expectation error argument as a contributing factor though. Good call. It at least aligns with my own experiences. What puzzles me is why a pilot doesn't verify what they think they know when there are readily available means of verification at their fingertips. Do they also accept that the gear is down and locked simply because the handle is down? I would presume that at least one of them usually looks at the indicators before believing that. Same thing for most flying tasks I'd say. Crosscheck and verify. So what is it? Distraction? Overconfidence? Sloppy attitude toward flying? All of the preceding and more?

Hey I realized pretty early in flying that I'm pretty good but not perfect! Even my own hard bitten and suspicious nature has temporarily failed me on occasion. I've been tempted by the wrong airport or runway quite a few times. But only very briefly until the "hey that don't seem right" moment that results from crosschecking. And all those taxiways that look better from the air than the runway! KSEA had a bunch of oopsies there. KLAS too. Big Xs and serpentine taxiway center lines seem to help somewhat. Yeah even though I love to hand fly visuals, tuning an ILS or loading a GPS approach seems like cheap insurance to me.

And what about the other guy sitting along side? Man or mouse, squeak up! Take part in the process! Even though it might not be your turn to fly, be a pilot, a good PNF. So there's all these opportunities to trap errors like landing at the wrong airport, yet it still continues to happen. If nothing else maybe it serves to inspire everyone else to be a little more aware. Maybe they crosscheck even if they're a little tired and don't think it's strictly necessary. I sure hope so.

[viking737]

Pattern is full:
Amounts to seeing what one expects to see - especially at night. Expecting airport lights, some runway lights appear....

I was in San Juan when a 737 inbound for TJSJ saw the lights of TJIG (the smaller GA airport) right under his nose (but ~8 miles closer) and landed there by mistake. Both have lagoons on short final - runways are 9-27 for TJIG and 8-26 or 10-28 for TJSJ - so again, he saw what he expected to see.


Do you remember what year and which airline?

[yippy ki yay]

Almost as bad as the RYR pilot who landed on a taxiway a few years back.

It sounds worse than it actually was...but still bad

[pilotcop]

That's right Ryan, many airfields have disused runways as taxiways, although it sounds impossible to do it does happen, many airfield briefs have information regarding locations of nearby disused airfields, new runways under construction, etc....all help to improve situational awareness....

however, as has been alluded to in previous posts, its a team in the flight deck, if something doesn't look right it probably isn't, i'd rather say something and it turns out my fears were unfounded than say nothing at all and let things go horribly wrong....

never say never, it can always happen to you no matter how good you think you are

[Basil]

Yes, if they (and you) have ILS, NDB, anything; even on a visual approach, tune it and crosscheck..

Colleague mentioned flying an air taxi in to Lossiemouth.
Given a radar descent and released downwind for a visual circuit.
Looked right and there was the runway.
Called Tower downwind and finals - cleared to land - easy.
Landed, cleared - and noticed - lots of Nimrods! Oh buggah! he thought.
SO - continued back down taxiway, had a bloody good look around, and took off again with a right turn to continue downwind at the REAL Lossie.
Lossie knew what had happened, Kinloss knew what had happened, he knew what had happened and it was tacitly agreed that it would not be spoken of.

Were there any clues? Yes, of course there were! One r/w was 23 and the other 26 for a start but, as you've said already, he was suckered into seeing what he expected to see.

[con-pilot]

I used to fly for a corporation whose 'former chief pilot'* not only landed at the wrong airport, but in fact overflew the airport of intended landing, which was on the mainland and landed on an island airport just off the coast. They were supposed to land at Cancun, Mexico but instead landed on the island of Cozumel. Admittedly it was at night, but it was a clear night and the owner of the aircraft and the other passengers all realized he had overflown Cancun. But the 'former chief pilot' paid no attention to their objections.



* Shortly after that, I was the chief pilot of the company.

[haughtney1]

They were supposed to land at Cancun, Mexico but instead landed on the island of Cozumel. Admittedly it was at night, but it was a clear night and the owner of the aircraft and the other passengers all realized he had overflown Cancun

Bloody hell Con, how did he manage that? Those 2 places look just about as dissimilar as you can get :ooh:
What a dullard:}

[Milt]

Wrong Airfield

From Memoirs
The students at ETPS without former jet experience and from countries using a different language than English had assimilation difficulties which the rest of us rapidly came to recognise. We did our best to help compensate by many fascinating discussions on flying, English social customs and behaviour.

Major Franki Frankini from Italy had an unusual background in that he had been a wartime fighter pilot with combat experience. Discussions revealed that he had actually flown a mission in which one of our tutors had been one of his adversaries in a dogfight. He also graphically described an occasion when he manoeuvred on to the tail of a Mustang and "I shoot and I shoot all my bullets into the Mustang and it just fly away." Later, following Italy's capitulation, Franki volunteered to fly Mustangs with the Allies against the Germans. So here was a fighter pilot who flew on both sides during World War II.

Confusion often occurred with air traffic control instructions despite the care taken by the controllers to use standard words and phrases with clear English diction.

It was not uncommon for pilots to mistake Blackbush, the civil airfield 10 miles from Farnborough, for home base. I found myself doing an initial approach on Blackbush one misty afternoon. I soon recognised my error as the layout of the airfield became clear. Not so with the Egyptian, Vickery Zarr, He followed through to land and when he went to turn off the runway on to a taxiway with which he was familiar at Farnborough, the resultant radio chatter became really hilarious.

It was normal practice under these circumstances for Farnborough to retain control over the offending pilot whilst liaising with Blackbush over a telephone tie-line. So those of us on the same frequency became party to a fascinating sequence of instructions and responses.

Blackbush was base to a fleet of civil Ambassador type aircraft and it became obvious that one of these was preparing for take off at the holding point when Farnborough said to Vickery " Take the next runway exit left and then the taxiway back to the holding point." Vickery said " I do not understand where I am and what I should do. I have some fuel left and can fly again for 20 minutes." Farnborough came back with "Roger, taxi straight ahead to the Ambassador." Vickery did not respond so Farnborough repeated the instruction. Vickery then came back in a faltering voice with "Please, please, I do not er er I do not wish to see the Ambassador today."

One of the tutors on the radio broke in with " Vickery you idiot, he means the Ambassador aircraft waiting for take off at the holding point." Meanwhile the rest of us had convulsions of laughter at the expense of the hapless and confused Egyptian.

We Australians were sometimes confused by different meanings given to words. The RAE were experimenting with a rapidly configurable inflatable aircraft capable of being carried around on a light road vehicle. The wings were inflatable and normally folded into a container. The engine was fitted with a small air compressor which inflated the wings and fuselage to maintain form and strength of its delta shape. Some intrepid test pilot would occasionally take it for a flight. The craft was always referred to by the British as the Durex Delta. This to us conceptualised a delta aircraft held together by Durex brand transparent sticky tape as marketed in Australia at the time. But the British did not have Durex sticky tape. Their Durex was a brand of condom.

I soon learned about this when my comments in mixed company one evening about having seen the Durex delta flying that day were followed by someone repeatedly kicking me in the shins beneath the table.

Flying in the northern hemisphere often puzzled me as I found I was less able to instinctively know where north should be. I had to take extra care to refresh my orientation with the compass. To this day I am unable to specify the basis for having some in-built directional capacity whilst in the southern hemisphere.

[captjns]

I guess the the term visual approach backed up by navaids really does not mean what it's supposed to... does it:=. Oh well.:(

[Dave Gittins]

My favorite visual approach aid is the gasometer with LH and an arrow on pointing to Heathrow to stop the numbers of people who saw Northolt and tried to land there. And a Pan Am 707 succeeded.

[ShyTorque]

A Navy Wessex pilot of my aquaintance landed by night and asked ATC for taxy instructions. ATC said they couldn't see him asked where he was. He said he was near the big airliners.

ATC told him to take off again and taxi 5 nm NE, from Lasham to where he should be, at RAF Odiham.

[Right Way Up]

I'm surprised none has mentioned the Northwest that landed in the wrong country! :O:O

[fireflybob]

When I flew the B707 for BOAC back in the 1970s there was an item on the landing check which said "Airfield and Runway......Identified and Crosschecked"!

We could add to the list a BOAC VC10 which landed at Sharjah instead of Dubai - many factors but the crew had extended duty and had been on something like 15 hours.

Just for the record the a/c which landed at Ballykelly instead of Derry belonged to Eirjet operating a Ryanair flight (ie not actually a Ryanair a/c, crew etc).

[Rev Green]

The airport authorities / FAA etc have to take responsibility for these incidents too. Where there is a risk of this type of incident occurring (or when it has previously occurred), a note on a Jepp chart or additional lighting to differentiate the airports may prevent further incidents.

For example, YMML (Melbourne, Aust) vs YMEN (Essendon): YMML has notes on the STARS cautioning the similar runway orientation at YMEN and additional white strobe lights confirming the final approach to YMML are also installed.

As for solely "looking out the window" when flying a visual approach on a modern jet, and not using aids / map display and in multi-crew aircraft for the PNF not to have a look at a DME/height check etc etc.... The 100's of people sitting in the back deserve better than that.

[Storminnorm]

I may b e wrong, as usual, but I seem to recall that several aircraft
have landed at Northolt rather than Heathrow?

[pax britanica]

Its not just landings that can be embarrassing
Didnt a USAF B52 do a flyby at Blackbushe not the Farnborough airshow a few years ago. I saw that myself but use the questioning tone since there were suggestions he had dodgy ATC vectors and the turn to the EGLF centre line was too tight at low level.

Also some years back the daily BA ( DC10 I think) to Bermuda lined up to land on a very short disused runway at kindley field and then shook everyone up in the sleepy little town of St Georges as he went around. Looking for a runway on base leg ,sees a runway, starts approach-had he stayed on the base leg another 30 seconds he would have seen a very long runway on the other side of the low hill that hid it from his view earlier.

it always amazes me as a pax how runways just do not stand out from the surrounding terrain a few miles out unless all lit up and how tiny they look from a typical 2000 ft 6-7 miles out final approach intercept.

PB

[Ancient Observer]

Storming,
You are not wrong. Like me, though, perhaps a little old with a half decent memory. So many commercial planes fancied landing at Northolt instead of lhr that a very large NO with a arrow was painted on a very large gasholder at South Harrow. I'm not sure whether it could be seen in the dark.
back in the 50s there were some scheduled flights to Northolt, so maybe doddery ex-RAF types were simply going where their memory told them......
...and as for some Navigators, I was at farnborough, awaiting a B52 fly-past, when the B 52 decided to fly-past Blackbushe instead.

[Basil]

Con,
* Shortly after that, I was the chief pilot of the company.
You weren't, perchance, in the JS saying: "I reckon that's it in the distance there, Boss." ? :)

[BandAide]

Every conceiveable aviating or aircraft operating mistake has been, or will be made by some pilot, somewhere. In large part, that's how our manuals get written.

Just a hunch, but I don't think there's much correlation between level of experience and wrong field landings. I have to confess about 20 years ago, with 15 years of flying under my belt, I zeroed in on a visual at Midland, Texas to the wrong field. As I was lining up, the other guy said, "Hey, that's not it."

Like gear up landings, there but for the grace of God...

I think a far more insidious and dangerous threat is taking off improperly configured.

[lambert]

Milt

I have also spent most of my life in the Southern Hemisphere either at sea or in aviation and found exactly the same thing when living in Canada and Europe - I invariably turn the wrong way! I have decided that it is because the sun is in the "wrong" position.

[Jay Doubleyou]

I sat in Northolt tower one blustery morning nearly half a century ago(!) when Heathrow were using 23L (now a taxiway) and was surprised how close and low their traffic was when crossing the final approach for 26 at Northolt. Later that same day, after I'd left, as passenger in an Aztec, Air France made their notorious mistake!
Just to be clear, the NO and LH arrows were added to the respective gas holders after that time, I think, 1964. The Uncle Roger column in Flight Magazine did a good parody about how NO meant "no" if you wanted Heathrow but NO meant "yes" if you wanted Northolt and LH being "yes" for Heathrow but "no" for Northolt!

[FoxHunter]

OV-1 Mohawk-Seaboard World DC-8 lands at Marble Mountain- Vietnam.m4v - YouTube

[Callsign Kilo]

Just for the record the a/c which landed at Kerry instead of Derry belonged to Eirjet operating a Ryanair flight (ie not actually a Ryanair a/c, crew etc).

Kerry rather than Derry would have been a spectacular navigational error. Considering one airport is in the the North and the other in the South West of Ireland! :p I believe the airfield in question was the disused Ballykelly and it was a wet leased Eirjet A320.

Almost as bad as the RYR pilot who landed on a taxiway a few years back.

This was Cagliari I think. Parallel runway system with one runway closed and utilised as a taxiway. You had to make an approach to the closed runway and sidestep. I guess that never happened.

[Alexander de Meerkat]

What this shows me is that all human beings are capable of making incredibly foolish and extremely dangerous mistakes, even though they may be very talented individuals. You will find that many of the people who made these errors have been subject to rigorous selection processes, intense and high quality training and had many years of incident-free flying. They had no desire other than to the best they could be that day and certainly would have been mortified if they knew what they were about to do. It would probably also be true to say that they would have been joining the mockers on here berating the idiots who had done such a stupid thing had it happened to someone else.

What this tells me is that we can all do it. Therefore, we have to build-in anti-error strategies into our flying. The first one seems to me an inclusion of a threat-error management section in our briefs. That means we identify nearby airfields that could cause us to mis-identify our true destination. Also, the use of navaids for visual approaches in a commercial airliner just seems total common sense - yet another protection in place to save us from ourselves! I am more than happy to concede that, given the right combination of circumstances, I could do this - my only question is how best to minimise the likelihood of it happening. I would suggest that humility may be the best approach to this - there but for the grace of God go I.

[Cunliffe]

How about the airliner that landed in the River Nile at Khartoum. Any truth in the story that the river was mistaken for the runway?

[barit1]

There's a reason the snack bar at Ohio State U.'s airport (Don Scott field, KOSU) was renamed the "707 Room". Roger Bacon (http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1968/1968%20-%200802.html) tells the tale.

[con-pilot]

You weren't, perchance, in the JS saying: "I reckon that's it in the distance there, Boss." ?

Ha, ha, no I was on another trip in one of the company's other aircraft. The funniest thing was I was standing in front of our hangar when they returned home (they were in Cancun for a week) and boss's girlfriend's kids came running up to me when they got off the aircraft yelling, "X landed at wrong airport, we're calling him 'wrong airport X' now." That was the first I had heard about it.

A month later I was a new chief pilot and X was no longer associated with the company.

Back then there was no long range navigation systems for business jets, all we had for navigation was VORs/DMEs and dual ADFs. So we used the ADFs for crossing the Gulf of Mexico when we got out of range of the VORs. When we got close enough to Mexico we would tune in the Cozumel VOR because it was more powerful than Cancun's. Then when we were able to receive the Cancun VOR on number two VOR, we'd change the number one VOR over to that.

Well that night, as they were getting in range of Cancun, the co-pilot reached over and changed the number one, or the captain's, VOR. Chief Pilot X, yelled at the co-pilot not to change his radio and changed it back to Cozumel.

He never changed it back to Cancun. So Don, the co-pilot, thought,
'okay, let's see what's going to happen'. Twice more Don tried to bring to X's attention that he was tuned to the wrong VOR and X ignored him. Don told me that it was a clear night, so he just sat in the right seat, talking to the Cancun tower and watched the Cancun airport pass off the right side of the aircraft, watched them fly back out over the Gulf, cross over the island's border, turn downwind, base and then they landed at Cozumel. All this time Don is talking to the Cancun tower and the Cancun tower is tell the Cozumel tower what is happening.

The Cancun tower even relayed to Don that the Cozumel tower cleared them to land. All of this was completely ignored by Chief Pilot X. Don told me that the Cancun tower basically said, 'Tell the fool flying he is cleared to land at the wrong airport.'

Things improved greatly after I took over.

Oh, if you knew 'Chief Pilot X', this story would not surprise you. He's still alive, how no one is really sure.

[pattern_is_full]

Not sure why my response to viking was deleted. I guess a certain famous encylopedia site is "verboten" as a memory aid. So be it.

Interesting that southeast Florida has FOUR airports with near-identical runway layouts in close proximity, but so far as I know, has not had any wrong-airport landings.

KMIA, KTMB, KOPF, and KFLL all have east-west parallels with a crossing NW/SE runway.

[stepwilk]

Delighted to see actual pilots responding to this thread with plenty of there-but-for-the-grace-of-god stories, since the thread was in danger of being overwhelmed by the cluck-clucking nonpilots who haven't the faintest idea how easy it is to land at the wrong airport, particularly if you're operating single-pilot.

I once landed at a tower-controlled airport (Pittsburg, Kansas) thinking I was going into an uncontrolled field. Had plenty of radios aboard, but I didn't say a word, taxied back and took off. Never heard a word about it, fortunately.

Where I live, there are two runways roughly aligned east/west with each other, one at POU, the other about eight miles farther on, at SWF. Fly the VOR approach to SWF and the first thing you see inbound is that POU runway dead ahead... No surprise that a four-engine jet landed at POU some years ago and barely stopped before the no-overrun west end.

[Harry Ainako]

but-for-the-grace-of-god stories

By the grace of God this happened in US. Had it be in the third world there would have howls of derisive post about how stupid, idiotic or incompetent Asian/African/South American pilots are!

In Asia there are plenty of airfields close to one another, eg Sangley near NAIA, Sungsan near Taoyuan and lots of small military airfields near major Chinese and Korean airports. It can happen here too but the consequences will be quite severe!

[skwinty]

What kind of steps are taken against pilots in the US for such errors.?

Sen Inhoffe got off quite lightly for landing on a closed runway with workers and vehicles directly in his flight path.

And, yes, I agree.

He who makes no mistakes does nothing.:sad:

[stepwilk]

Depends where you wrongly landed and how bored the tower crew is. There are plenty of controlled fields in the U. S. that see maybe a dozen flights a day, believe it or not, particularly now that GA is half-dead. It's been awhile since I was involved in anything like that, but I suspect that if you quickly call the tower or FSS and apologize, explain what caused you to make the mistake, they'll just tell you to try not to do it again.

I speak as a GA pilot, of course. I'm sure it's quite different for air-transport pilots.

Senator Inhofe, by the way, tried to buy my Falco 10 years ago. I refused to sell it to him.

[skwinty]

Thanks, I think you made a wise decision 10 years ago.:ok:

[Akali Dal]

By the grace of God this happened in US. Had it be in the third world there would have howls of derisive post about how stupid, idiotic or incompetent Asian/African/South American pilots are!

In Asia there are plenty of airfields close to one another, eg Sangley near NAIA, Sungsan near Taoyuan and lots of small military airfields near major Chinese and Korean airports. It can happen here too but the consequences will be quite severe!

My dear Harry, this incident happened not to a major airline's crew and most of the truthful posters here are probably down to earth GA pilots. The legacy airline pilots in the first world are a different breed altogether, who in their own own little world can do no wrong.

[stepwilk]

If you're talking about the incident in Louisiana that initiated this thread, it indeed was "an airliner," albeit a turboprop short-haul aircraft. Granted, not an A380, but where do we draw the line?

[Serafim Kamoutsis]

Years ego ( 1989 or 1990 ) a Commertial pilot during night arroached a wrong rw in Dubai ( Sharghia) and over shouted at 50ft for the other rw .....

[skwinty]

Northwest Airlines pilots missed their stop by 150 miles.

At least it wasn't Continental. Human frailty knows no boundaries.:E

[VFD]

If you're talking about the incident in Louisiana that initiated this thread, it indeed was "an airliner," albeit a turboprop short-haul aircraft. Granted, not an A380, but where do we draw the line?
Easily resolved, just call it a tech stop.

It is simple just follow the proceedures you will land at the proper airport on the proper runway.

VFD

[airman1900]

"Interesting that southeast Florida has FOUR airports with near-identical runway layouts in close proximity, but so far as I know, has not had any wrong-airport landings."

From the NTSB, an event on June 10, 1973, (sorry for the poor formatting):


NTSB Identification: MIA74IM008
14 CFR Part 121 Scheduled operation of UNITED AIR LINES INC
Aircraft: BOEING 727, registration: N7625U

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILE DATE LOCATION AIRCRAFT DATA INJURIES FLIGHT PILOT DATA
F S M/N PURPOSE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4-0030 73/6/10 OPA LOCKA,FLA BOEING 727 CR- 0 0 8 SCHED DOM PASSG SRV AIRLINE TRANSPORT, AGE
TIME - 2110 N7625U PX- 0 0 71 UNK/NR, UNK/NR TOTAL
DAMAGE-NONE OT- 0 0 0 HOURS, UNK/NR IN TYPE,
INSTRUMENT RATED.
CLASSIFIED AS INCIDENT
NAME OF AIRPORT - OPA LOCKA
OPERATOR - UNITED AIR LINES,INC.
DEPARTURE POINT INTENDED DESTINATION
ATLANTA,GA MIAMI,FLA
TYPE OF ACCIDENT PHASE OF OPERATION
MISCELLANEOUS LANDING: LEVEL OFF/TOUCHDOWN
PROBABLE CAUSE(S)
COPILOT - FAILED TO FOLLOW APPROVED PROCEDURES,DIRECTIVES,ETC.
PILOT IN COMMAND - INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF FLIGHT
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS - LANDED AT WRONG AIRPORT
REMARKS- VISUAL APCH TO LND AT MIA INTL LNDD AT OPA LOCKA RADIO SET 119.3 MIA TWR FREQ 118.3 MH.

There are dozens of "wrong" airport landings listed at:


http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html (http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html)


Some say, any landing that you can walk away from is good landing:)

[stepwilk]

It is simple just follow the proceedures you will land at the proper airport on the proper runway.

Unlike some flight-simulator game, flying isn't always a matter of "following procedures," but I don't suppose you'd understand that.

[captjns]

No excuse whatsoever for landing at the wrong airport. Errors such as this happen when there is breakdown of SOPs and CRM. I've never seen an FCOM that had a statemen to the effect that if a visual approach is to be accomplished then naviads when available shall be tuned and identified as a backup and confirmation.

I remember years back a CAL with an FMS landed at the wrong airport at Corpus Christi in CAVOK conditions. The excuses and justifications were just beyond belief.

Yes... Jeppy needs to insert notes about airports that may be confused with intended airports of landing to help preclude such incidences.

[stepwilk]

No excuse whatsoever for landing at the wrong airport. Errors such as this happen when there is breakdown of SOPs and CRM. I've never seen an FCOM that had a statemen to the effect that if a visual approach is to be accomplished then naviads when available shall be tuned and identified as a backup and confirmation. I remember years back a CAL with an FMS landed at the wrong airport at Corpus Christi in CAVOK conditions.

Oh, you pompous Alphabet Soup with all your FMSes and CAVOKs...Try an SPO into ACS AN and then STFU.

[westhawk]

Yes, let's get some more posts in so it flips to the next page and gets us off this oversized image induced mess!

[captjns]

Sorry Stepwilk… I did not realize you were sitting in front of your Microsoft Flight Simulator or Play Station. Anyway here goes.

SOP = Standard Operating Procedures

CRM = Crew Resource Management

FCOM = Flight Crew Operations Manual

CAL = Continental Airlines

CAVOK = Ceiling and Visibility OK (can’t defined OK any further than OK.. OK?)

Jeppy – Jeppessen

DS = well from the tone of your post Stepwik, you can define that anyway that best suits your personality;).

All the best from the Pompous Alphabet Soup.

[Check Airman]

Interesting that southeast Florida has FOUR airports with near-identical runway layouts in close proximity, but so far as I know, has not had any wrong-airport landings.

KMIA, KTMB, KOPF, and KFLL all have east-west parallels with a crossing NW/SE runway.

A few years ago, a student pilot was aiming for KTMB and wound up on final to KFLL instead (while talking to KTMB tower). She got quite close to the ground before realizing that KTMB didn't normally have Boeing and Airbus products on the ramp.

She only missed her airport by 30 or so miles. I suspect she did not receive a passing grade for that lesson.

On a related note, I've been in the situation where I've been issued a landing clearance by a controller at the wrong tower. Luckily, that was quickly rectified. Since then, I've been extra careful to remember to say the name of the facility I'm contacting, instead of just the position. ie "Miami tower, N123..." instead of just "Tower, N123..."

[bubbers44]

One of our airliners was trying to land at El Paso and ended up at the military field just north. Realizing his mistake he took off again and landed at El Paso. He got in more trouble for his unauthorized take off than his original mistake.

[Fly380]

Wrong Way Landings By Commercial Airliners (http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html)

[Alexander de Meerkat]

Akali Dal - Just to clarify my background, I am not a GA pilot but an Airbus A320 Captain and 'Check Airman' (called something different here in the UK) who has been on the Airbus for more than 10 years. Before that I flew various other commercial types and before that I was in the military. Like I said, there are numerous dreadful errors out there waiting to beset us all, and I would be the first to say it could happen to me. I am therefore doing my best to ensure it does not! In recent years, for example, there have been countless examples of very senior pilots getting lost on taxiways, entering runways without permission or taking off and landing on the taxiways instead of using the runways provided! Virtually every one of the pilots involved were competent, capable individuals with solid training records but who 'lost the plot' for a small but critical period of time. Thus far, I have avoided being involved myself in one of these incidents, but that just means the statistics are stacking up against me! As I said previously, half the battle is recognising that we are all capable of this happening to us. Thereafter we have to provide conscious mechanisms to make sure it does not.

[BRE]

Wasn't Pinnacle going to drop the Colgan name more than a year ago?

Did a hop in one of their Saabs a few weeks ago, it was Colgan operating as United Express. The biggest issue was that the air conditioner operates only when the engine is on, and even then it is underpowered.

The plane came in about 25 minutes prior to departure, and by the time we boarded at 2:30 pm, the temperature inside the cabin was easily 100°F with the shades down. It took about 15 minutes of flight for the temperature to drop a little, and it was still hot when we landed 10 minutes later.

The poor flight attendent was sweating profusely and looked and acted exhausted. Got a look at the pilots later in the terminal, they were in a similar condition. How can anyone keep up performance after a couple of such hops?

[captjns]

I agree, it’s not hard to get lost at a complex airport especially during night and rainy conditions with poorly marked taxiways or no markers for that matter. There have been times where I sought the assistance of the ground controller to help me find my way rather than creating havoc or conflicts. The controller may be irritated, but I remind him that at the end of the day his help will save us both a lot of unnecessary paperwork.

I still find it difficult to understand how an error in landing at a wrong airport can occur if proper briefings are accomplished, available naviads are tuned and used as a reference during visual approaches.

It’s a fact that a breakdown in disciplines do result in disastrous outcomes. Case of the CRJ departing Lexington KY on the wrong runway a couple of years back resulting in deaths at the hands of competent airmen. No final compass check after taking the runway… something so simple. Another needless tragedy was when an American Airlines B757 crew ran a perfectly good jet into mountain crest because they were out to lunch… Not verifying the waypoint of the fix they wanted to fly to for the approach.

Is anybody impervious to mistakes? Heck no!!! But as competently trained and qualified air crews we exercise CRM, SOPs along with situational awareness and proper disciplines to reduce such events that may result in a tea and biscuit fest with the CP or even worse premature death. At the end of the day passengers paying money for safe passage from Point A to Point B want to hear the line catchall phrase, “Yes… it can happen to anyone.” Check Airmen can't stress enough the importance of following porper procedures as set forth during training.

[ExSp33db1rd]

BOAC landed a Britannia at Cartierville, the GA airfield about 3 nm NE of Montreals' Dorval Int. Airport, with parallel runways in the same direction. The Capt. ( one of the 'nicer' North Atlantic Barons ) just taxied around and took off again and landed at Dorval, and when the stuff hit the fan he remarked " I thought least said, soonest mended " !! but ........... a student pilot flying solo in a Cessna decided that BOAC couldn't be wrong ......... so ........ he hung a left and landed at Dorval !!

The Flight Manager threatened the next 'wrong airport' landing Captain with the sack, then promptly landed at the nearby USAF Base near Manchester Ringway - he didn't sack himself.

[WillDAQ]

Sorry Stepwilk… I did not realize you were sitting in front of your Microsoft Flight Simulator or Play Station. Anyway here goes.

Licence Type (eg CPL. Pilots only) commercial
Current a/c Type (eg B737. Pilots only) All under-12,500 lb. GA single and multiengine land and sea planes, glider, CE500 type rating
Biography former Exec Editor Flying magazine, currently contribute to Air & Space and Aviation History magazines

:ugh:

[sitigeltfel]

There have been many instances of Naval aviators landing on the wrong carrier, known as "catching a live one". The carrier involved would sometimes let the errant aircraft land to pile embarrassment on the crew. Before the suitably redecorated aircraft was allowed to launch and recover to the correct carrier, a case of the captains favourite tipple was normally offered as compensation.

[Graybeard]

In Aug 1983, a CAL DC-10 took off from LAX headed for HNL. By the time they reached the departure gateway, ATC advised they were north of course. They checked the dual INS, and returned to LAX, flagging both INS for bad navigation.

That nearly state of the art INS had only one item in NVM, the lat/long at shutdown. That was same as departure lat/long in this case. Supposedly the FE had entered the departure lat/long, then verified by the pilots. The Lat was correct for LAX, but the Longitude was for Denver.

If they hadn't been caught by ATC, they may have ended up lost beyond VHF range of HNL, 800 miles to the west.

KAL007 happened a month later. Instead of 149W, the FE could have entered 140W or 139W.

[MurphyWasRight]

There have been many instances of Naval aviators landing on the wrong carrier, known as "catching a live one". The carrier involved would sometimes let the errant aircraft land to pile embarrassment on the crew. Before the suitably redecorated aircraft was allowed to launch and recover to the correct carrier, a case of the captains favourite tipple was normally offered as compensation.

Along the lines of "how could they possibly miss that"; a long time ago I read in a Naval Aviation magazine safety collumn that the Nayv had launched every type of folding wing (as in make space on deck, not variable geometry) aircraft they own at least once with the wings still folded!

Totally amazing is that some did -not- end up in the water but managed to open the wings after launch.

[con-pilot]

One of our airliners was trying to land at El Paso and ended up at the military field just north. Realizing his mistake he took off again and landed at El Paso. He got in more trouble for his unauthorized take off than his original mistake.

The way those two airports are situated it is very easy to lie up on the wrong airport when landing to the south when approaching from the north on a visual approach, even in very clear weather.

I always had the ILS tuned for El Paso no matter how clear the weather was. It is a trap that is very easy to fall into.

One place that was just as bad is no longer an issue. That was Kansas City, Missouri Downtown Airport, which used to be the home base for TWA and Kansas City, Kansas Fairfax Airport just across the river. There one was most likely to mistake the two airports in poor weather conditions while shooting the ILS approach with a cross wind from the west. When you broke out of the clouds around 500 to 1,000 AGL with a west crosswind, the Fairfax runway was right in front of the aircraft, perfectly lined up. Fairfax is now closed, so the problem no longer exists.

[taildrag]

I don't recall hearing "wrong airport" stories about any of the Florida airports, which have similar layouts in some cases.

I do remember a story of an ATCO querying one pilot, "Are you landing at FLL (Fort Lauderdale)?" "Yes, why?" "Well, it just went by over your right shoulder."

Yoiks!:eek:

[jackx123]

so "commercial" pilot is a big thing. why not airline pilot since there are plenty of em in the past aiming for the the wrong strip.

[Desert185]

History has shown that mistakes can happen to anyone. My emphasis was never to land at the wrong airport or the wrong runway, no pod or tail strikes, no wing strikes during taxi (even with the assistance of marshallers) and no gear up landings...essentially, no accidents or incidents. I set the parking brake for the last time at the airlines meeting those goals (with a proud sigh, I might add), and I still do a bit of flying. So far, so good...

I am thankful for my luck and wish the same for others. :D

[westhawk]

Right on Desert!

That's something worth aspiring to. So far so good, but always on guard.

[moggiee]

All too easily done.

I suspect that the problem is often one of insufficient planning and briefing. As pilots, we thoroughly brief any instrument approach, despite them being our daily diet yet we are often guilty of rushing into a visual approach even though they are rare "treats" for an airline pilot.

[Parson]

Not that long ago, a private jet carrying a certain F1 driver from the west country landed at Filton rather than Bristol.

[pasir]

Almost - but not quite I too could have landed at the wrong field - Being a newly qualified PPL and on my first real overland trip from Biggin to Hurn -with the final stage of the trip flying over the New Forest - which I beleive at that time still had two or three disused RAF airfields in close proximity to each other - with the outcome that most will now realise. So there I was giving my circuit position to the Hurn controller who acknowledged each call - placing me somewhere around Nr 3 downwind - (it was many years ago and memory may have lapsed) and only when reporting on base or turning final did the controller realise something was not quite right - and anxiously suggested could I be over Stony Stratford - or the other nearby disused airfield. Realising my mistake
at the 11th hour I had every good reason to be grateful to the Hurn controller that day !

...

[sherburn2LA]

lining up for the runway at Camp Pendleton Marine Base instead of Fallbrook, CA just after 9/11 will make your heart flutter a bit when you realise what you have done (still a little short of the restricted area fortunately).

[westhawk]

I was humble enough to askGood attitude towards learning and try never to lose that personal quality. A healthy dose of skepticism also goes a long way toward preventing mistakes based on faulty assumptions. As time goes on and as each new achievement is realized, your confidence in self will grow, yet should be tempered by the humility that can come only with experience. Humility and confidence can and do coexist in the best pilots I've known and flown with.

In that vein, I'll share a couple of experiences related to the thread topic.

We were flying into Boeing field (KBFI) in Seattle, WA and had just been issued a descent and a heading to intercept the final approach course for the ILS 31L. So we're turning and descending and it looks like we'll get all this done in time to capture the LOC and configure for approach with room to spare. There were layered cloud conditions and we were in and out of the clouds and into bright sunshine with excellent visibility every few seconds. What is known as a beautiful day in the Seattle area.

Just as the LOC came alive, we get a TCAS "climb" RA! Okay, nose and thrust up, we fly right into a big billowy cumulus cloud. After a few seconds, the PNF had notified ATC and ID'd the red traffic symbol on the MAP display as being behind us just as the "clear of conflict" message comes over the audio. Okay we agree. time to push back down to the last altitude and capture the LOC. Just then we fly out of the cloud and see a big runway right in front of us, perfectly lined up only a few miles away. Crap, we're pretty high to make the straight-in, but the nose is down and Hawkers descend very capably. We can make it.

I notice my partner squirming in his seat as he advises ATC of our intended return to the previously assigned altitude and it hits me. The damned LOC needle is full left, we'd flown through the LOC during the RA maneuver and were now right of course. That airport in front of us is NOT BFI* and we need to stop this descent at the assigned altitude and go get that LOC. Fortunately, this all happened such that capturing the altitude and LOC were easily accomplished in short order. But that moment of disorientation following the untimely RA had nearly distracted me into doing a very stupid thing. I was thankful that my flying partner's obvious discomfort had triggered my skepticism and prevented what could have become an unpleasant outcome. We laughed about it over beers and dinner later. Yeah, I understand how easily things like this can happen.

Fast forward 5 years and we're on vectors for a visual to San Jose, CA. (KSJC) This time I'm right seat for a guy doing his IOE in the Westwind. It's a little fuzzy but visibility is about 5 miles in the haze common to the area. It's near sunset though, and we really can't see much else but the cityscape. Only one of the long runways is open due to construction and no ILS is operative so we've got the SJC VOR tuned and the airport displayed on the GNS 530 for orientation. There is quite a few other planes on the freq and the controller is firing vectors out at machine gun pace. We did at least three heading changes and speed adjustments for sequencing. We've been instructed to follow a SWA 37 to the airport and can just make him out ahead of us. It looks like following him will have us intercepting a final for rwy 12R with about 4 or 5 miles to go. Just then ATC breaks us out with a new vector for re-sequencing.

After a couple more vectors, we're told the airport is ten o'clock and 5 miles, (at least that's what I thought I'd heard. On reflection it could have been "nine" miles) report in sight. I spot an airport in front of us and ask the PF if he sees it. He agrees so I inform ATC and he clears us for visual approach and contact tower. The PF starts maneuvering to line up on the runway as he begins descending and calling for flaps and gear. I notice the DME indicating 8 miles and the KSJC symbol on the GPS map offset to the left. About now, I realize that the airport doesn't look right either. "Crap", says I,"those are the blimp hangars and that's Moffet field"! We turn left with a big blast of thrust and spot SJC followed by a normal landing. Luckily we'd never gotten that close to landing at Moffet and there was no activity there that day so once again no harm done.

But no further proof that mistakes always wait for any opportunity is needed! If fate is the hunter, then the complacent are the hunted. Constant vigilance born of skepticism and a desire never to make dumb mistakes are well complimented by habitual crosschecking and the employment of established error trapping procedures. And yet still it happens...

*the field I lined up on was Renton. (KRNT)

[Speedbird48]

I was driving by the field at Lake Charles at the time they should have landed and my passengers commented that both sets of runway lights were on. It was a crystal clear night with no haze, and low temperatures and therefore little humidity. Lake Charles has several large hangars and a terminal building. It also has navigation aids.

Southland field is several miles West near Sulpher, La and is a small single runway field with few buildings. There are a large number of chemical plants, all well illuminated, between Sulpher and Lake Charles. There is a large river and a big lake as well as the lights of the much larger city of Lake Charles. All clearly visible.

The tower is closed at that time of night as in many rural airfields with commuter service in the US, Not unusual.

To sum up, lazy or badly trained crews. Complacent comes to mind. This is the third occurance according to the local press. I notice Colgan as being the operator, is anyone watching their operation??

Speedbird 48.

[OKhalsa]

To those pilots who post about their own personal experiences regarding inadvertantly mistaking other airfields for their intended destinations, thank you very much for your honesty, humbleness and willingness to share. A real breath of fresh air, far cry from those self aggrandizing posts about superior flying skills, yada, yada, yada.

Though I have never made such error in any of my landing approaches, I have turned onto wrong taxiways on the ground a couple of times. I have been even caught turning into the wrong gate once!

I am alway amazed at local US pilots making derogatory remarks ( at immigration lines ) about foreign pilots being reluctant to accept visual approaches. Come on guys, we probably fly to some US airports once in 6 months or once in a year; we are not familiar with all the visual landmarks, rivers, highways, race tracks etc. When ATC gives rapid fire visual clearances specifying visual landmarks, it is very dicey for anyone unfamiliar with the local scene to accept visual approaches.

The sniggers we get when we need to ask for repeat of ATC instructions, the disparaging remarks when we miss a high speed turn off, etc are all examples of small man syndrome. I have heard US and foreign pilots struggling with ATC in Asia too, or even in Europe.

[Desert185]

OKhalsa

I am alway amazed at local US pilots making derogatory remarks ( at immigration lines ) about foreign pilots being reluctant to accept visual approaches. Come on guys, we probably fly to some US airports once in 6 months or once in a year; we are not familiar with all the visual landmarks, rivers, highways, race tracks etc. When ATC gives rapid fire visual clearances specifying visual landmarks, it is very dicey for anyone unfamiliar with the local scene to accept visual approaches.

The sniggers we get when we need to ask for repeat of ATC instructions, the disparaging remarks when we miss a high speed turn off, etc are all examples of small man syndrome. I have heard US and foreign pilots struggling with ATC in Asia too, or even in Europe.

To keep it fair and balanced, I think I can safely say I have never seen an Asian pilot make a visual approach in Asia, unless you consider Kai Tak's IGS13 to be visual. I have, BTW, and done so a number of times when ATC allowed it. With today's moving map displays, one doesn't need local knowledge in every case. Even without moving maps, a visual to Kansai on a good night can easily be done...with approach nav backup, of course. A visual doesn't necessarily mean not selecting the appropriate nav references.

Language issues? Absolutely. Asia and Europe, both. Goes with the territory for a non-native speaker.

Being derogatory towards each other, justified or otherwise, is a two-way street. Not nice, but a fact of life. We've all had our share of it, even here. Just consider the source and press on.

6'0", BTW. :cool:

[OKhalsa]

To keep it fair and balanced, I think I can safely say I have never seen an Asian pilot make a visual approach in Asia, unless you consider Kai Tak's IGS13 to be visual. I have, BTW, and done so a number of times when ATC allowed it.

Just like Al Gore, I am going to let out a long sigh. It shows that you don't get to see much over in Asia too. Many of my colleagues and I had regularly made visual approaches into Kansai, Fukuoka, Penang, Don Muang, Phuket, Pusan and LAX.

Using moving map when you are asked to approach via a certain landmark.......sorry, my aircraft has no google map and I ain't that smart to be constructing waypoints to depict those landmarks below 10000ft.

[Desert185]

Samba Anaconda
Quote:
I have never seen an Asian pilot make a visual approach in Asia, unless you consider Kai Tak's IGS13 to be visual. I have, BTW, and done so a number of times when ATC allowed it
My dear Okhalsa, no need for the long sigh and any shaking of your head. He/she is the paragon of western psych war expert ( sadly I come from the west too ), subtly telling you that you are inferior. He/she is so superior, so bloody good at manual visual approaches and you poor Asian sods are useless, nowhere in his/her league. You get the message now. See how clever this individual is; that message is to be sunk subliminally into all and sundry reading this thread. That was the way the colonies were subjugated and such individuals are reminding you again, get it?

I never said any of that rubbish, nor did I intend to send that message. The fact that you and OKhalsa took it that way speaks more negatively of your personal thought processes and bias than mine.

Al Gore? :ugh:

[Samba Anaconda]

I have never seen an Asian pilot make a visual approach in Asia, unless you consider Kai Tak's IGS13 to be visual. I have, BTW, and done so a number of times when ATC allowed it

My dear Okhalsa, no need for the long sigh and any shaking of your head. He/she is the paragon of western psych war expert ( sadly I come from the west too ), subtly telling you that you are inferior. He/she is so superior, so bloody good at manual visual approaches and you poor Asian sods are useless, nowhere in his/her league. You get the message now. See how clever this individual is; that message is to be sunk subliminally into all and sundry reading this thread. That was the way the colonies were subjugated and such individuals are reminding you again, get it?

[PyroTek]

This wasn't a matter of landing at the wrong airfield, but during my CPL training, an instructor pointed something out to me.
I was sent to find a radio mast, I found it. The instructor said "Is that it? Are you sure?" and it wasn't really something I'd thought about. I just used DR to get to the mast, but didn't think about how I knew it was the correct mast. She next took my map off me, and pointed about 6-8 surrounding things, golf courses, powerlines etc. to prove that it was the particular radio mast. I guess looking for proof seems to never go astray, whether it be icons on a map, navaids saying what they should say, a GPS saying where you are, or all of it deducing the same outcome.

[Golf_Seirra]

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….:ouch:

[DownIn3Green]

And no better place to tell the story than in the local pub...

[fokker1000]

G S. Spot on mate. We've all heard 'Yeah, I [F*%ked up]' did that last time, so watch out for that!!

Sadly, there is the odd 1% of [capt or FO] in the industry who will watch a collegue make life hard and mention it afterwards.... BHX in the UK can be less than straight forward as benign as it sounds!

HER, BJV, DAL etc are my regular haunts amoungst others and if Im flying with a new [junior] pilot I brief them acordingly as go round is safety/time/gas inefficient, .

Call me old fashioned but if I'm with a new FO, Before I go for a piss, I'll ask what they will do WHEN number 1, or 3 winds down? If I don't get the rite answer I'm not leaving!

[TheShadow]

I recall a mortifying day when I was so fatigued and distracted that I simply forgot to land at all.

[overun]

Have you claimed the flying pay ? :)

[captjns]

Now I know that takeoffs are optional... but aren't landings mandatory??? even if one forgets to land???:E

[RedhillPhil]

I seem to recall being told as a boy by a 43 Sqd. pilot that it was almost a monthly occurance in the fifties and early sixties for F.A.A. and R.A.F. pilots to get Ford and Tangmere confused - or was I being spun an aeronautical myth?

[GAPSTER]

I dweam of an aeronautical myth:E

[Nubian]

Pattern is full,

I was in San Juan when a 737 inbound for TJSJ saw the lights of TJIG (the smaller GA airport) right under his nose (but ~8 miles closer) and landed there by mistake. Both have lagoons on short final - runways are 9-27 for TJIG and 8-26 or 10-28 for TJSJ - so again, he saw what he expected to see.

I guess you think of: United Airlines UA5850, which was a B757 with 188pax....12-21-1991. Runway at TJIG is 5542ft, and has a lagoon on final 09 and a marina and high-rise hotels in the other end. Located 5NM from San Juan Intl. and have no nav-aids.
After that the plates has warnings about it on the ''plates'' used for TJSJ.
Stripped down, min fuel and flown out later after winds had died down(allways 09, 15+kts during day), but the big problem was turning it around on the narrow rwy, without proper taxi-ways for it..