Wrong continent
 

Seem to remember an airliner landed in the wrong continent in the 80's. Must have been in Turkey. Europe and Asia, so not as bad as the headline suggests. Can't remember either the airline or the airports but I guess someone here might have the info.

Can't beat wrong continent, but wasn't there an issue in the 70's when an aircraft landed in Eilat instead of Aqaba (or it may have been the other way round). I have a feeling it may have been Air France, but I could be entirely wrong.

VC10 at Sharjah
 

ATC at Sharjah, Dubai and Bahrain in those days was all operated by the same company (IAL) - rumour in Bahrain was that the Manager at Sharjah had a large cardboard cut out of the distinctive Dubai Terminal and Tower that he rolled out in front of his own terminal whenever someone landed there by mistake so that he could increase the landing fees! :}

An Eastern Airways DC3 pilot once told me he'd landed at Wymeswold instead of EMA on one occasion. Back in the 1980's a (Balkan?) TU134 tried it too, but was alerted to his mistake by ATC in time to prevent it happening.

Back in the Gulf again, a former colleague told me that a Korean 747 on a visual approach to Rwy 30 at night had lined up in error on the lights of the oil terminal jetty at Sitra. Despite being told several times by an increasingly concerned ATCO to 'Go Around', he kept asserting, 'negative, we have runway in sight', until finally the outline of an oil tanker became apparent and it did eventually go around, roaring very low over the Gulf Hotel, where the Ruler of Bahrain was holding a reception!:ooh:
RC

As a young 20 something year old on his first trip to Europe (as sub load) I got off loaded from the Lufthansa flight in Bombay at 2AM. I clearly remember driving in a "Morris Oxford' Cab to the hotel. Enroute the taxi driver swerved on the road to get around the nose of a JAL 707. It had landed at the wrong airport.

Apparently the small original airport and the large main airport runways were aligned, and the JAL captain only just made it - with the nose half way across the road.

As we drove past I could see that the aircraft had now become home to a large number of resident Indians - now that is what i call recycling.

Having flown for a long time now every pilot, like landing with the wheels up, it is only a lapse of memory from becoming one the statistic's of "wrong airport landing" - I can see the smiles already on the faces of some older pilots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Many years ago a UTA, I believe, DC8 lined up on the street lights up the road from Auckland Airport. The exact details escape me but I distinctly remember a chicken farm being decimated during the go-around.

Odiham certainly has had it's share of oops wrong airfield incidents.

I recall a Dan Dare 727 on very short finals suddenly realising that Lasham didn't normally have Pumas on it's runway!

There was also the day when it rained gliders when one pilot mistook Odiham for Lasham and landed with many following his example.

I was driving down the runway at Wyton one day to be confronted by two German F-4's short finals opposite direction.

After collecting brake chutes and doing the follow me, I had took great joy in saying to the crews " Welcome to RAF Wyton, Alconbury's that way".

Pan-Am 707 at RAF Northolt
 

In October 1960 I was an RAF Ground Radar Technician at RAF Northolt. I worked on the GCA section, generally known as the airfield gypsies. The equipment was a Bendix Mobile Precision Navigation 1A (MPN1A) that consisted of an operations “caravan” that contained the 30 mile range search radar and the final approach precision “talk down” radar. When the operational runway was changed to suit the wind direction, the equipment was towed to the other end of the runway. Northolt runways at that time were 08 & 26.
On the day of the error by the Pan-Am pilot I was setting up the precision approach display when I saw a very large return, 2 or 3 miles out, on the final approach console. The visibility at the time was good and I assumed that the aircraft had been authorised to make a visual approach which was unusual at Northolt because of our proximity to London Heathrow. I watched the landing on the screen and very shortly after heard a very loud roar of jet engines. I opened the door and saw the blue nose of a Pan-Am 707, under very heavy breaking, go past our set-up that was only 250 yards from the end of the runway. The aircraft stopped just short of the overshoot area!
Next to the equipment was a rest caravan that was used mostly to play bridge between landings. Landings were considered most inconvenient! From the caravan emerged our delighted talk down controller who immediately entered the equipment and spoke on our intercom box that was connected to London Heathrow control tower. “We have got one of yours here,” he said. The reply is not suitable for publication!
The 707 was piloted by a Captain Waldron Beale (or very similar) and as far I recall he was immediately relieved of his command.
Within an hour, our rest caravan was the centre of an impromptu enquiry. Attending were, the Wing Commander (Flying), the Senior Air Traffic Control Officer (SATCO), the local Air Traffic Control Officer from the tower and our crew. Very quickly it was established that the 707 pilot had turned right at the Harrow gasholder instead of the Southall gasholder. “Not our fault!” Meeting adjourned.
I think it was next day that we watched the 707 depart for Heathrow with another crew. The only damage was to the sodium runway lights some of which were blown away by the overhanging engines of the aircraft at take-off.
With regard to closing the Western Avenue (A40) for the departure, I seem to remember that Northolt Air Traffic control had been trying to get traffic lights installed on the road in the same way as they were on the Ruislip Road at the other end of the runway.

Dave Howes

I watched that incident from school in Harrow (NOT Harrow School!) we realised what was happening but could do little about it!

I recall reading about a BOAC Stratocruiser bound for Manchester or perhaps Burtonwood (BOAC weren't too keen on the then relatively short runway at M/C, so used Burtonwood until M/C lengthened its runway, I think) in the fifties, landing at the then active RNAS Stretton. All three airports are within about a 20 mile radius.

Also, a Spantax CV990 landing at Hamburg Finkenwerder instead of Fuhlsbuttel, in the late sixties or early seventies. This was before huge lengthening of Finkenwerder's runway for Airbus production and I think I also read that, to make things worse, there was a substantial brick building at the take off end of the runway. And the pilot was none other than Rodolfo Bay, boss of Spantax. They had to remove a lot of stuff from the CV990 for it to be able to take off. Landing must have been a bit hairy too.

<<ATC at Sharjah, Dubai and Bahrain in those days was all operated by the same company (IAL) - rumour in Bahrain was that the Manager at Sharjah had a large cardboard cut out of the distinctive Dubai Terminal and Tower that he rolled out in front of his own terminal whenever someone landed there by mistake so that he could increase the landing fees!>>

Sounds like something my old mate Jim Sawyer might do!!!!

Glider Landouts
 

One of our club pilots found himself low and had to land out. He identified a good field, made a good landing, and on his way to find a phone noticed aircraft flying circuits on an adjacent field:{

Another pilot in need of a field spotted a windsock and hangar below, set up his approach and became concerned on final that the runway appeared a bit short. He landed just past the fence, got stopped -- and found himself at a model airplane field:}

Another of our pilots did the same thing in Germany and received a round of applause as he emerged from the glider:p

There's been a number of gliders that have landed at jail farms or the grounds of mental institutions. Telling head nurse that you have just landed your glider in the back and need to make a phone call initially just gets sympathetic noises and suggestions that it's time for more meds:}

<<There's been a number of gliders that have landed......... or the grounds of mental institutions.>>

Highly appropriate if I may say so!!!!

Not quite in the "wrong airfield" context, more in the "wrong airspace, uncertain as to present location" actually.....the two Luftwaffe F-104's that flew down the Mersey Valley, at low level / high speed and thus through the middle of Stockport over the viaduct were a delight to see and hear....:ok::E

Their boss may not have quite so impressesd I suppose.....alas

This was mid 80's by the way. Possibly somebody from MAN ATC may recall this little excursion?

Pan Am 707 Northolt 1960
 

There are photos on abpic (taken by the Station Photographer at the time...would be nice to know his name).... also mentioned earlier in this thread
Air-Britain : pan 707 northolt

I think a Lufthansa 720B got on the glidepath for Northolt a couple of years later but realised the error and went around (to LHR :))

I believe that his name was George Trussell ;)



SHJ

I was tower ATCO at Dubai in the mid eighties on a typically sleepy afternoon shift, when I almost fell off my seat as I noticed a MEA 707 on short final with a squad of painters on the runway.
I couldn't send it around because it wasn't on my frequency and we were not even expecting an arrival for another hour!
A quick call to radar revealed that he had cleared the 707 for a visual approach to runway 30 at Sharjah, had transferred the aircraft to Sharjah tower and had gone back to reading his book. Meanwhile the Sharjah controller had cleared the errant pilot to land and was wondering why he could not see the aircraft.
Fortunately the radar controller alerted the Sharjah controller who instructed the MEA pilot to go-around from my runway as the painters were running for their lives!
Happy days!

I sem to remember tales of pilots getting - I think it was - Ford and Tangmere mixed with unfortunate results.
I remember the BIA 1-11 on the taxiway at Gatwick. I was on duty at the railway station when it came roaring over much, much closer to our office on platforms 1/2 than aircraft usually were.
Didn't a B-52 driver overfly Blackbushe a couple of years ago rather than Farnborough?

dhavillandpilot (post 85) - it was a Japanese Airlines DC8 that landed at Juhu in the early morning mist. It came to rest just before the road and opposite a hospital. We drove past it on our way to the hotel in Juhu and I took a cine film of it. I bet they got a hell of a shock when they suddenly saw the end of the runway coming up.:eek: I think it was 1973.

<<I think a Lufthansa 720B got on the glidepath for Northolt a couple of years later but realised the error and went around (to LHR )>>

Northolt did not have an ILS in those days so approaches were largely visual. The closing heading for the then 23 ILS at Heathrow was around 250-260 degrees and if the aircraft was in the right position, as it turned on to the heading the Northolt runway came into sight dead ahead. Whereupon, disregarding the Heathrow ILS and various other factors, some crews just "went for it". The fact that they were a couple of thousand feet high didn't seem to worry them and it was difficult to convince some that they were not looking at Heathrow..

Northolt vs Heathrow
 

I think I recall hearing Northolt doing PAR approaches about 1970 whilst listening to my Air Band radio....

IIRC the inaugeral Comet flight from the UK landed at Juhu by mistake. Had to take all the seats, etc, out to get it to Bombay International.

Delta (?) Mad-Dog, following I95, heading for Daytona Beach, took the rather early left turn, and lined up for a visual 08 @ Ormond Beach.
Aircraft was stripped and flown out of Ormond.
This happened sometime late -90's.

Was it an Iberia MD-80 a few years ago that either nearly or actually landed at St Athan instaed of Rhoose ?

<<I think I recall hearing Northolt doing PAR approaches about 1970 whilst listening to my Air Band radio....>>

PAR is not ILS and would only be available to aircraft in contact with the PAR unit. Those I mentioned were talking to me and should have been following the Heathrow ILS. One reason for my post was to point out the lack of ILS at Northolt when you had said a B720 "got on the glidepath".

I was working at Heathrow when a US registered cargo DC-8 landed which should have been at Gatwick. On take-off from Shannnon it received a message from its company to divert to London. Now the company and the crew understood "London" to mean Gatwick whereas every normal person interpreted "London" as Heathrow Airport. So.... the various ATC units were informed that the DC-8 was diverting to Heathrow and routed it to Ockham. Soon after Woodley, Heathrow turned it back downwind for 10L. The pilot asked ATC to confirm the heading but continued on it. A little later it was put on a closing heading for 10L (pilot still didn't twig) and went straight through the ILS. By a remarkable coincidence the frequency for 10L had changed the day before and when the pilot said he was not receiving the ILS the controller replied that it had changed and passed him the new frequency, whereupon the aircrftf flew the ILS and landed. As it turned off the runway, and Ground Control said there was no stand allocated, the pilot uttered a common expletive and explained that he should have been at Gatwick!!!

On another occasion, a foreign military 707 was routed to Biggin, again for landing on 10L. Descent was given and as the controller turned the aircraft on to a closing heading for the ILS he gave the pilot the range of "10 miles from touchdown". The pilot replied something like: "Negative, sir, we are 158 miles from touchdown". Turned out he should have gone to Manchester!!! Whoever filed his flight plan wrote the destination as EGLL!

Hmmm...

Plenty of Farnborough/Blackbushe mix-ups. Also vague recollections, early sixties, of a Spanish Air Force C-54 landing on a disused Hendon instead of Northolt, and a 4-prop (Brit?) landing at Holmsley South instead of Hurn.

Yeah like the Group Captain on his final Farnborough flight before he was posted out; flying back from Bedford in command of the evening Devon ferry, he turned final for 08 at Blackbushe instead of 07 at Farnborough; old Reg at Blackbushe was so proud of his new runway lighting and had left it switched on, but the Gp Capt wasn't aware Blackbushe had lighting newly installed!(well that was his excuse anyway, so what was his navigator doing?)

Probably letting an air trafficker sit in his seat so he could sit in the back and read the paper...;)

707 Northolt...DC-8-63 on 4300ft strip
 

Heathrow Director...I used the phrase got on the glidepath for the LH 720B because I can't remember the details about how close it got to touchdown....I wasn't suggesting PAR=ILS, merely confirming that PAR was still available around 1970.....came across this account of a Seaboard DC-8-63 putting down on a Vietnamese wartime STOL strip tagged onto a report about a Seabord DC-8-63 being forced down in Soviet territory with 200 troops onboard during the Vietnam war
Seaboard World Airlines landing at Marble Mountain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I can also testify to the Japan Airlines DC8 incident at Juhu.
Within days the airframe was 'acquired' and happily populated by significant
numbers of homeless. I think this situation continued for some time.
Hilarious memories of those days including our methods of defeating local prohibition rules with copious teapots/cups of booze at hotel dinners!

Spangdalem for Bitburg back in USAFE F-4 days - easily done and often!

I think it was early march 1974 I was in the circuit at Nicosia when a Strikemaster called for joining clearance, he was given it and landed normally on runway 32. after landing he remarked that another 2 were on the way about 20mins behind. They duly called and eventually called "finals 3 Greens" on runway 32. They were given clearance to land. the next call which was heard by us who were airborne was for taxi instructions, this was not heard by the tower as they had landed at Tymbo ( now known as Ercan)

Wrong Airfield
 

I think it was 1959 during the 'Arc to Arc' competition when a French Air Force Vatour landed at RAF Kenley instead of Biggin.
Only a couple of minutes apart in Vatour time and after all it was a race,but sadly only half the runway length,so he trundled through a lightweight fence onto Kenley common.
Took off some days later after attention to the gear.
Possibly the only twin jet ever to land there,(or any jet even).
Could have been worse if he had got as far as Croydon !!!!

Seaboard World Marble Mountain Vietnam

Heathrow Director Seaboard never operated into Gatwick, they only operated into Heathrow.

Looking at that video, a bit ungallant of the crew to take off again on the ferry flight and leave all their FA's still in their 1960s miniskirt uniforms behind to the mercy of the military base residents ..... !

- got to think of the weight, and maybe that was the only way the 'handling' fee could be 'paid'................:)

Seaboard World Marble Mountain Part 2.

There's a little more on this at http://jiscmediahub.ac.uk/mediaConte..._EE_02_ITV.pdf which indicates that it happened in July 1959; it even gives the name of the Lady concerned - apparently a 'model', but no mention of any WW2 exploits.

And a small picture of the aircraft at Kenley (well, nearly Kenley!) on the front-page of a French newspaper; see Journaux anciens de collection: NOUVELLE REPUBLIQUE (LA) 22/07/1959, revues et magazines .

Kenley Vatour
 

Great Stuff G of Naz.
I saw the machine t-off from Kenley, but was down in the village at the time.It was a surprise to me as Kenley only had ATC gliders based there,but as the picture shows well the fence was fairly basic,and caused only superficial damage to part of the gear. 59 was the last year of power flying at Kenley,and then the large white crosses were painted at the runway ends.We still got the occaisional 'arrival' and genuine emergency,but the Vatour must have looked exciting.
A wounded Turbulent came in one day (mid 60's) and the pilot started to get a grilling from the weekend VRT Gliding Instructors who saw fit to reprimand him. After several requests for his name and despite his apologies for his 'engine off ' (fuel pump seizure) arrival he sighed and said i am Wing Commander XXXXXX from MOD.Stunned silence followed by a mass coming to attention and flurry of salutes,with 'Staff Cadet' (me) being instructed to assist with removal to our 'Belfast shed' with Land Rover. I finally stopped laughing about a week later !!!!

No it was a land rover !!!!! We did not call them that it was series one LR,nearest british copy of a Willys when we took the doors off and dropped the screen.

KENLEY plug here, Empire Air Day planned for 2013

Timewarp definitive Battle of Britain airfield on a Surrey common.

Rodolfo Bay, CEO of Spantax himself landet a Convair CV-990 into Hamburg Finkenwerder (today the Airbus Airfield) instead of Fuhlsbüttel (the international airport) on May 31st 1967. With 128 Pax of course on the way to a press conference regarding the safety of low-cost airlines :ok:
Original newspaper report
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