Pilots land at wrong airport.

[skol]

Not the first time by a long shot. I remember QF in the 1980's lining up on Hughes Field, miles away from LAX doing a visual approach.

Passenger plane lands at the wrong airport after pilots ignore their navigation equipment.

Passenger plane lands at the wrong airport after pilots ignore their navigation equipment - Travel - NZ Herald News (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=11728228)

[DaveReidUK]

PPRuNe thread at the time (4 years ago!):

http://www.pprune.org/south-asia-far-east/498003-sriwijaya-air-faces-audit-after-pilots-land-wrong-airport.html

[Pinky the pilot]

Hey, I once landed at Kaintiba and requested cancel SAR Kamina!:ooh::eek:
Or was it the other way 'round?:confused:

Middle of the Wet, it was...

Any ex PNG lapuns will savvy.:D :E

[tail wheel]

Hey, I once landed at Kaintiba and requested cancel SAR Kamina!

Don't feel bad about it Pinky. I remember when a Government Airline landed a Green Gravel Truck at Tefalmin instead of Telefomin then had to whistle up a Chook to lift it out as the runway was a tad too short!!

:}

[Metro man]

The airports look very similar from the air, and being on the coast the runways are the same direction. The mistake is quite easy if you try and eyeball it, thats what navigation equipment is there to prevent.

In India, the ATIS for Chennai warns pilots not to mistake the nearby military airbase for the civil airport, something to do with a cargo jumbo landing there by mistake.

[Pinky the pilot]

Taily; Green Gravel Truck

A 'Bou?:confused:
Thought those things could get into and out of nearly anything a Bongo Van could!

[Derfred]

What navigation equipment?

[tery84vx]

Air india also came close to landing a 787 at Essendon

[TBM-Legend]

TAA came close to landing on the highway at Mackay once..

[JamieMaree]

Skol,
You need to check your facts before you splash!
The airport that was the mistake was Hawthorn which is about 3-4 miles from LAX. You go past it at about 1200' depending on which runway you are landing at in LAX. No excuse for it but LAX in the haze can be an issue specially if ATC has left you high.

[Metro man]

What navigation equipment?

RNAV can give you the extended centreline of the runway.
GPS on the runway threshold to give bearing and distance.
ILS/DME tuned in even for visual approach.

That way if you are on short final but your instruments show the airport is 10 miles away it may indicate you are in the wrong place.

[Chris2303]

A Globemaster trying for 29 at NZCH was going to land on Memorial Drive.

Many years ago now of course

[KeepItRolling]

Air India also came close to landing a 787 at Essendon

And Garuda (multiple times).

And United.

[ShyTorque]

I once landed at exactly the correct place, but a month early!

(Tasking cell's mistake, not ours..they sent us in June and the user wanted us in July).

[Old Fella]

JamieMaree is spot-on SKOL. Having followed the QF across the Pacific from HNL we landed ahead of it into LAX. Later in the evening in SFO the story came out and I cannot recall whether or not the QF boys bought the beers, but maybe they should have. It was late September 1980. BTW, Hughes has been closed now for about 30 years.

[skol]

I'm quite sure I'm correct, it was in the early 1980's, I was posted to Los Angeles at the time.

[Wunwing]

I agree, early 1980s. There was a bit more to it though. As I remember, it was only the second QF landing into LAX and the crew were given a "mud map" by the 1st crew which was supervisory crew. The mud map featured fuel tanks as a marker. The trouble was that there were 2 different lots of fuel tanks. One lot not seen by crew number one and that was what caused the confusion.
I was on crew 3 waiting in HNL and we rapidly had the mud map withdrawn from our brief sheets.
Wunwing

[ACMS]

Didn't they have an ILS in LAX then? Why use a mud map to fly a visual approach into an unfamiliar Airport???

In the past I've done a visual right base onto 24R from SMO, but that was in blue sky and I'd been there multiple times before.....

[Old Fella]

I would be amazed if Qantas did not have Jeppesen Approach Plates for LAX and if they had not required operating crews to have done at least one simulated approach to LAX before operating into the facility. It is too long ago to remember exactly, but I am pretty sure we used the ILS for arrival, at least until visual with the runway. We were a B707.

[TBM-Legend]

C-17A lands at GA airport instead of Homestead AFB, Florida>>


http://www.google.com.au/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dwi58Ds3Krgw&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjthK679_LPAhUBTWMKHS7RCikQtwIIIDAC&sig2=EKACBoYoOj6UtO3itZAOUg&usg=AFQjCNEaVl2VsWISJhYwJGcerHRtz32FJA

another oops!

[hawkerxp]

In their defence, I have been to the airport they were aiming for and it is the same direction and looks similar, given it is usually 2-4km vis because of the palm oil fires its no wonder they screwed it up.

Then again nothing really surprises me in indonesia :ugh::ugh::ugh:

[Flingwing47]

The airports look very similar from the air, and being on the coast the runways are the same direction. The mistake is quite easy if you try and eyeball it, thats what navigation equipment is there to prevent.

In India, the ATIS for Chennai warns pilots not to mistake the nearby military airbase for the civil airport, something to do with a cargo jumbo landing there by mistake.
Um not cargo - pax 747 SVA.
Early morning missed approach on 07 due not aligned off vectors.
Problem repeated on 2nd attempt. Tower advised crew " clear to land runway to your right"
Tired crew saw military runway to the right and landed.
Multiple cues ( no city!) and shouting from FE ( wrong airport) ignored.
4000ft runway as I recall. Close to max landing weight. Loved the 74.

[Flingwing47]

Don't feel bad about it Pinky. I remember when a Government Airline landed a Green Gravel Truck at Tefalmin instead of Telefomin then had to whistle up a Chook to lift it out as the runway was a tad too short!!

:}
Actually as I recall they bent it trying to takeoff for Telefomin - no charts etc.
Not quite long enough :/
Big operation to get it out.

[LeadSled]

JamieM,
Skol is correct re. QF at KLAX, it was Hughes Field, not Hawthorn. I could (but I won't) even tell you who the three pilots were, and how it happened, and including with a major fumble of a frequency change which left the QF off frequency.
Good old QF have had several cases of the wrong field, including Tullamarine before it opened, Changi when it was still RAF Changi, and a whoopsie at Honolulu.
Not to mention close goes at Karachi ( International versus Drigh Road) and others.
All very embarrassing.
I was in London the day a Lufthansa B707 landed at RAF Northolt.
Tootle pip!!

[JamieMaree]

Sleddie,
I agree it was Hughes not Hawthorn. It was only a couple of miles north of LAX south of what now is Jefferson Blvd.

[Mendi Matt]

It happens! I once landed in the Western Province of PNG in a Twin Otter at Haiwaro (and cancelled SARWATCH)….only to find that I was actually on the ground at Kuri, 10 miles away! Oops….! (in my defence it was a ****ty low-scud day, and from treetop level all strips in the Western Province kinda' look the same…:))

[Pinky the pilot]

(in my defence it was a ****ty low-scud day, and from treetop level all strips in the Western Province kinda' look the same…)

Just about all ex PNG Lapuns could/would say; "Been there, done that!":D

[Feather #3]

Skol, your story is absolutely correct. It was a bad trip from the time the captain attempted to taxi on the centreline blue lighting departing Sydney.
The captain was sin-binned from training and the F/O was demoted.
Hawthorn may be another incident but not AFAIK.

G'day ;)

[Airbubba]

Um not cargo - pax 747 SVA.
Early morning missed approach on 07 due not aligned off vectors.
Problem repeated on 2nd attempt. Tower advised crew " clear to land runway to your right"
Tired crew saw military runway to the right and landed.
Multiple cues ( no city!) and shouting from FE ( wrong airport) ignored.
4000ft runway as I recall. Close to max landing weight. Loved the 74.

Here's an Indian news account of the miscue from 1997:

Close shave for 368 on Saudi aircraft

K R Sreenivas

CHENNAI, June 2 [1997]: All the 351 passengers and 17 crew members of a Saudia Airlines jumbo jet Boeing 747 aircraft had a miraculous escape when the flight SVA 770 scheduled to land at the Chennai airport at 6.30 am on Monday landed at the nearby Indian Air Force airbase in Tambaram at 6.44 am.

The wide-bodied heavy jumbo jet aircraft which landed on the secondary runway of the Air Force base came to a screeching halt at the edge of the runway barely 100 feet from a few offices on the campus of IAF Tambaram. The aircraft landed with a heavy thud and made a loud noise, scaring all those around. The airmen and others present at the Air Force base station ran for their lives, seeing the aircraft approach towards them at great speed. The flight was on its way to Chennai from Riyadh and Daharan.

The 4,763 feet secondary runway and four tyres of the aircraft were damaged following the landing of the aircraft. However, all the passengers and crew members escaped unhurt. As the pilot applied brakes, the passengers were thrown forward, sources said.

Airport sources said pilot of the aircraft Captain Khayyat sought visual clearance to land at the Chennai airport after sighting the runway. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) gave him permission to land, but the pilot reported that he had overshot the runway. The ATC instructed the pilot to circle and then come back for landing.

The pilot then went on an orbit and landed at the Tambaram Air Force station airstrip, mistaking it for the Chennai Airport. He then contacted the ATC and told them that he had landed, but they wanted to know where he was as they could not see the aircraft at the Chennai Airport. To their shock, the ATC learnt that the pilot had landed at the Tambaram Air Force station. They immediately contacted all agencies concerned and emergency operations commenced.

The Customs, International Airports Division of the Airport Authority of India and Immigration authorities rushed to the site of the incident. The passengers inside the aircraft suffered as the air-conditioning system was off. Passengers complained of suffocation.

Air India, which is the ground handling agent for Saudia Airlines in Chennai, moved the step ladder from the Chennai airport to the Air Force station for passengers to disembark. The Pallavan Transport Corporation (PTC) pressed into service nine buses for their transported to the airport for Customs and Immigration clearance. Sources said the aircraft landed despite refusal of permission to touch down at the IAF airbase. A Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) inquiry has been ordered into the incident. Aviation circles wondered why the pilot did not use the automatic Instrument Landing System (ILS), which guides the aircraft approach path for landing and take off. Since the aircraft circled thrice over the Tambaram runway before landing, the investigators are making enquiries to find if there was a motive for the pilot to land at the sensitive Air Force station base.

A highly placed official said the pilot realised his mistake but it was too late to pull off the aircraft. IAD Airport Director Roshan Lal said the passengers were sent to hotels and all assistance was being provided. The formalities were also relaxed, he said.

The National Airports Division (NAD) has sent a preliminary report to its headquarters in Delhi. The IAF has also constituted a separate inquiry into the incident.


http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/122607-saudi-747-lands-closed-section-runway.html#post1225435

[C441]

In the early 80's a Philippine Air Force Nomad crew landed at the old Katherine airstrip near the hospital thinking they were at Tindal. They did particularly well to miss a couple of grazing horses and the single-strand power line that ran across the strip that looked more like a disused country track than an airstrip.

Ambulances rushed from the hospital thinking it was a forced landing while over at Tindal a couple of us were telling Flight Service that he wasn't there.

Having realised their error the boys in the Nomad blasted off (can you do that in a Nomad?) over to Tindal, a few more miles away.

I reckon they were probably thinking that the Philippine Air Force was not so bad if this is the best Australia can do for an Air Force base…..until they realised their error…..

[LeadSled]

Folks,
Many moons ago (early 1970s) a JAL DC-8 landed a Bombay Juhu in mistake for Bombay Santa Cruz, less than 2 miles apart, with Juhu almost on the coast, (using the old names dates me) and had to groundloop the aeroplane to miss the IL-62 that had made the same mistake a couple of days earlier.
The DC-8 was a write-off. I don't know the eventual fate of the IL-62, but both arrivals must have been a tad exciting, given the short runways involved.
If you go through the history books, such "incidents" are not all that uncommon, and always very embarrassing, and can be career ending, depending on which side of the inquiry desk the Fleet Manager is sitting.
Ask the Ansett/AWAS crew, inaugural Jet Aviation service Bombay to Bangalore, circa 1993.
Tootle pip!!

[J.L.Seagull]

An Air India 747 did the same!!! They got the Boeing guys out there to remove everything non-essential. Fuel tanks were drained to the bare minimum for their 2 minute flight to VABB.

[Metro man]

Eirjet, operating a flight on behalf of Ryanair managed to do the same thing in Belfast.

Pilot lands passenger jet at wrong airport - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ireland/1514297/Pilot-lands-passenger-jet-at-wrong-airport.html)

[kibz2005]

Ethiopian did the same thing in a B763 mistaking Arusha (small GA hub) for Kilimanjaro (large international airport). All this despite them missing a rather large prominent snow-capped, landmark that should have been North of the airport! :}

Ethiopian Boeing 767 crash-lands in Arusha - National | The Citizen (http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/national/Ethiopian-Boeing-767--crash-land-in-Arusha/1840392-2117492-13xygrdz/index.html)

[Clipper811]

skol,

Witnessed the event at Hughes airfield (CVR.)
I was a student studying in the US at Loyola Uni 1981-84. Loyola is located between the N runways at LAX and CVR. Would sit up on the bluff overlooking Hughes and study and watch the limited air traffic.

The QF 747 went missed on final at a fairly low height and commenced G/A.
Went right over the top of me approx. 300' agl.