Channel Mixup
 

I was once told of an incident that happened in the early 70s with two Channel Airways Viscounts out of Southend. There was one departing for Jersey and one for Guernsey at the same time. Somehow, the traffic staff got the aircraft mixed up and boarded both pax loads on the wrong aircraft.

Both were full loads so the pax totals were the same. Nothing was noticed until after take off when the usual "our flying time to ...." announcements were made and the pax started to ask some awkward questions. After some discussion on company frequency it was decided to change destinations of each aircraft to match where the pax wanted to go and some embarrassing calls were made to London Control changing flightplans en route.

All then went well until after landing when it was discovered the baggage loaders had been more on the ball than the traffic staff and had loaded all the luggage in the correct aircraft! Each aircraft then had to make an extra trip to return the luggage to the respective pax. Lucky GCI and JER are just a few minutes flight from each other.

Not so long back a twin called final at Wick. Sadly he was at Kirkwall, much to the consternation of 2 atcos.

There was an event recently in the North-West of the UK. A Cirrus owner/pilot (allegedly sterotypically considered by some as the aeronautical equivelant of a BMW car owner) carried out an impecable circuit and landed. When requesting taxi instructions no-one answered. He did enjoy the attention of the rapidly inbound military escort. After being advised that he had arrived unannounced and ruined SATCO's day at RAF Valley, he was rumoured to have commented:

'I thought it was strange having all these fast jets at Caernarfon'.

camlobe

Syerston..mid 70's...gliding with 4C's.....on duty pilot day. Light a/c lands and duly taxi's to the launch point....go to investigate said unexpected visitor and out pops "mature gentleman and, er,much younger lady"....put 2+2 together and ask them to wait by a/c until I have spoken to "higher authority"...cough..aka the troops. Return with grom faced troops and begin questioning said gentleman.....all very serious here of course....seems he has mstaken Syerston for er, Sywell.....lots of um ! / ah ! from the troops....then ask for all his details "MoD property, Official Secrets Act" blah, blah ( like a lamb to the slaugher at this point :E )...much consternation from said gentlman including the "Mr Smith" routine and "need to be discreet here" etc......alas...full name etc duly provided....strict warning given etc....gentleman and bemused pax depart for Sywell....had he had rear view mirrors, the sight of the masses convulsed with laughter as he departed may not have endeared him towards us.....

Speedbird 48


I know it was a VC10 cos I was on that fleet and one of the pilots was my exflatmate. I heard it as Bahrein - but you obviously know better.

Wrong airfield
 

Lightning doing circuit at Scampton thinking it (he) was at Binbrook and talking to Binbrook local...

Scampton pick up phone to tell Binbrook of "errant" Lightning not talking to it...Binbrook jump on bandwagon and permit said Lightning to land....much hilarity all round.:D

Now call me a bluff old traditionalist.....but check compass....

In those days everyone had a sense of humour...

The VC10 Sharjah incident was Dubai. Approaching Dubai from the east they were cleared overhead the airfield then a 270 degree turn to the left onto finals. Unfortunately there was a very strong westerley wind, so when they rolled out of the turn they were nicely lined up with Sharjah.
After landing, having realised their mistake, they contacted Sharjah tower and got permission for an immediate take-off. On arriving at Dubai they kept the flight deck door closed while they completed the paperwork for the 'extra' sector.
Both airfields were very different places in the early 70's from the modern, busy places that they are today.

Dave

PS. Speedbird48 is correct in that they turned around at the end of the runway and took off in the other direction. They were forgiven for the incident due to the very long duty day that they had completed. The story was told to me by the captain (LH).

OOPs! sorry
 

DH6 into Ballykelly instead of Derry with upset pongo knocking on the door:ooh:

At the time of the Sharjah VC10 incident the word among the local aviation community was that the crew realised the error while still on the approach but committed to a touchdown, from the large number of visual cues that it might not be DXB, and then did a roller, followed by positioning (radar?) back on to the approach to DXB. The rumour added that the Captain was done for taking off without clearance.

It was a very hazy day with poor visibility.

However, Capt Airclues version may be more accurate, if not such a good story.

Think your story is probably correct Capot!

Well thanks for that, but Capt Airclues' edit makes it even more authoritative. But I'm in no position to laugh...

On route from Le Touquet to Nice one day long ago I decided to land asap in the face of a terrific squall line in front; I chose Orange from my 1:500,000 map, looked them up, changed the crystal (it was an ex-RAF trainer) and approached straight-in in very heavy rain and gusts. Having just had clearance to land I assumed that the red flares were for someone else. It was Orange Military, about 4 miles west of the coivil airport, I think, with a more or less parallel runway.

Released from military jail later that day I continued to Nice, then Urbe. There I had a radio failure, and was cleared next morning to fly non-radio at 1000ft to Ciampino, approach straight in and land, as soon as I got a green from the tower. So I flew across Rome to what I guessed was Ciampino on my 1:500,000 map; it and Fuimicino were very close with one name above and one below. Landing at Ciampino I crossed the threshold only to see a B707 taking off across my bows towards the west. So I turned left rapidly and flew at 100ft to Ciampino, landing some 5-10 minutes later. It seemed that no-one noticed.

I claim the record. Twice in 2 days.

I was at school in Harrow when the 707 landed at Northolt, rather than LHR, and which we watched through the classroom window, rather puzzled. All was explained on the news that evening.

It was also claimed that a Commandant at Cranwell in the early 60s did the "call finals at Cranwell, land at Barkston Heath" trick.

Anybody with better knowledge of this one?
About 1951 BOAC Comet landed at old Calcutta Dum Dum airport - not long enough for jets so allegedly hairy stop, and not long enough for even light load take-off. New airport not far away but no connection, so track beaten out by elephants. Story gets better as allegedly aircraft pulled to new airport by self-same elephants. Pilot Yorked - i.e. reduced to flying BOAC's York freighter service London-Singapore. Story told me in 1953 by my mother who worked for BOAC's ground handling agents in Singapore.

Romour had it an IOM based J31 landed at Warton rather than Blackpool. Stopped on the runway, powered up and off they went!

IOM J31 incident is indeed true. Once they arrived at Blackpool they no longer worked for that company.

[flights to YUL where you almost overflew Cartierville airport and could see the runway below a couple of minutes before landing at YUL. More than one airliner, including a Pan Am 707 and a BOAC Britannia, landed at Cartierville by mistake, thinking it was YUL."


That's why the Brits named the airline BOAC: "Bin Over At Cartierville".

'Scuuse meeee....

Cycled into work at Odiham, mid 80's, to see a Balkan Airways Viscount turning on the Chinook Pan and heading for the runway, taking off for a one-minute hop to Lasham!

Rigga.. I never heard that story. Any more info? I can't find any record of a Viscount being owned by "Balkan Airways", or TABSO.?

Also happened in 67 with an Air India 707 (or similar) landing at Changi. (what happened to Paya Lebar btw?)

Also at Seletar in 67 an erk wandering from East to West camp on the road across the closed runway at night was scared s**tless when a Javelin from nearby Tengah screamed over his head and plonked down on the unlit runway. Reputedly so short of fuel he couldnt make it to Tengah, but still a good effort landing with on the black bit in the middle of the not quite so black bit!

Singapore Air Force have it now but its still there the building I think.

My guess is that it may be Baltic Airlines, who were a 1980s small-time Viscount operator from Southend, something to do with BAF.

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1988 | 1167 | Flight Archive

I recall a Brymon Twin Otter landing at Odiham, and spending an amount of subsequent time in a hangar there, but a "Mayday" had something to do with that :)

Lets raise the stakes!
How about the wrong country?

Not contributed to this thread before but the comment about Wrong Country reminded me of an episode involving American Trans Air in 1988. They were operating a sub-charter with a 727-100 on behalf of Paramount from the UK to Gerona, and landed in Perpignan by mistake! There was no emergency or problem with the aircraft, and even the cabin crew made the usual announcement welcoming everyone to Gerona!! I was working for Paramount at the time and we were told that the crew had "made an error"!

Right airport, wrong "runway"
 

I can't see it reported here but wasn't there an incident with a BIA BAC 1-11 landing on a taxyway at Gatwick rather than the runway?

Yes,

BIa did land on the LGW taxiway, I happened to know the very experienced Captain, although I do believe the landing was on LGW's 2nd runway which, unless in use, is classed as a taxiway.

An Air Malta 737-200 did the same thing back in '93 off a SRA onto 26R at LGW....

ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-2Y5 9H-ABA London-Gatwick Airport (LGW)

Odiham has had several unexpected visitors; I did a fam flight with Britannia Airways once and the FO told me he had been positioning to Lasham in a '737, they landed and taxied in and as they came to a halt, the marshaller turned his bats round to reveal 'Welcome to RAF Odiham' on the reverse. Then there was the Rumanian An12; being vectored for runway 07 at Farnborough, the crew saw runway 10 at Odiham and in spite of the controller telling them it was not Farnborough, they landed!
The aforementioned Twin Otter definitely should not be included. It was a scheduled flight into Gatwick but routing outside CAS; once on Farnborough frequency the pilot advised he had an engine problem and needed to land quickly (I think he had to shut one down) so was vectored for visual approach at Odiham.

If there are any Yanks out there, A Delta 757 landed at McDill Airforce Base just 2 Miles south of Tampa. Happened in the early 90s Tampa has 2 runways 18 and 36, McDill has one. Having been based in TPA it is REALLY easy to be mistaken as ATC make the effort to make sure you do not land in the wrong place....

The only 'wrong country' incident I can think of is the Fw190 at Pembrey, 1940 (?). Supposed to be France IIRC.

Wrong country
 

On 5th September 1995 a Northwest Airlines DC-10 landed at Brussels, Begium, rather than their intended destination, Frankfurt, Germany.

Dave

Chevvron,

The Twotter was actually routing to LHR, never mind an engine problem, the engine disintegrated, and with a full load on board he couldn't maintain altitude on the one remaniing engine hence a "Mayday" dirty dive in to Odiham! :)

Wrong Country
 

During WW2 many aircraft landed in the wrong country, some by accident some on purpose.

The history of 'navigational errors that led to allied aircraft ending up in in neutral countries is fairly well documented.

Ireland had a long history aircraft entering its airspace (Dublin bombed by accident) and landing either because of damage or navigational error. My and large allied crews were allowed home or to continue their journey whereas Axis crews spent the rest of the War in the Curragh.

More here fr those interested:

Aircraft Landings Ireland 1939 - 1946

Heathrow Director,
"Rigga.. I never heard that story. Any more info? I can't find any record of a Viscount being owned by "Balkan Airways", or TABSO.?"

Maybe it wasnt a Viscount but it was Viscount-ish (I'm still not a good fixed-wing spotter!) but it did say Balkan Airways (or airlines?) above the windows - and I was there!

Rigga

Didn't an Italian military transport carrying troops for a NATO exercise in Norway land at a Swedish airfield some years ago? Something to do with two fields having very similar names.

Not Airfield but bombing range.................

I was stationed at Cowden AWR in the early eighties when a Vulcan was tasked for an FRA on Target 8 (the barge) called in and cleared Hot...called off wet, we called no spot........


Meanwhile we receive a call from Donna Nook (next range down south) asked if we had a Vulcan booked in for our Barge Target mentioned affirmative...they then asked did we want the score:}

VEEPS

I still go for the Baltic Viscount

Photos: Vickers 814 Viscount Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

, because the IL-18 (nearest to a Viscount that Balkan operated), like all the Balkan fleet, never said "Balkan" on the side, because Bulgaria uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

Photos: Ilyushin Il-18V Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Speedbird 48

Been confirmed many times now, Dubai / Sharjah. Knew the crew, then ! - memory taken over now so can't quote now - and wouldn't anyway.

Dorval / Cartierviille. BOAC Britannia 312, landed, realised mistake when the YUL tower couldn't see them, taxied around, took off, landed at YUL. When the Sh. hit the F. the Cap. said " least said, soonest mended ".

A private pilot / student training at Cartieville thought BOAC can't be wrong, so went and landed at Dorval !!

BOAC D/Flt. Mgr. landed at Burtonwood instead of Ringway - threatened to sack the next pilot who did that.

Don't recall the BA Singapore incident? Worked in SING. from early 1983 so must have been before then ? more likely Paya Lebar / Changi than Seletar. P.L. was the familiar field, the new (present) Changi only recently opened in early 80's and had same runway directions a few miles to the South, similar approaches.