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
From the local Hamburger Flugzeugwerke Company newsletter