Commercial Pilot Lands at Wrong Field
Join Date: Oct 2007
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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.
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.
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
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….
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….
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!
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!
Last edited by fokker1000; 17th Sep 2011 at 23:45.
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?
Pattern is full,
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..
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.
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..
