Boeing 747 Dreamlifter lands at wrong airport

[Ramjet555]

BBC - Jumbo jet mistakenly lands at tiny Kansas airport

Jumbo jet mistakenly lands at tiny Kansas airport
BBC News - Jumbo jet mistakenly lands at tiny Kansas airport

Listen to an excerpt from the exchange between the control tower and pilot

A Boeing 747 Dreamlifter cargo plane will attempt to take off from a minor airport in Kansas after it landed there by mistake.

The giant cargo jet was heading for McConnell air force base in Wichita but instead touched down at nearby Colonel James Jabara airport.

Airport officials believe the plane will be able to depart despite the much shorter runway at Jabara.

An attempt is scheduled for noon local time (18:00 GMT) on Thursday.

The aircraft normally needs a runway of 2,780m (9,119ft) to get airborne at maximum weight; Jabara's runway is only 1,860m long.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image..._jumbo_624.jpg

A tug was dispatched to the airport to turn around the giant cargo plane.

Brad Christopher of the Wichita Airport Authority told the Associated Press news agency the company that operates the aircraft had "assured us they've run all the engineering calculation and performance and the aircraft is very safe for a normal departure at its current weight and conditions here".

The Dreamlifter, which landed at Jabara on Wednesday evening, is a modified 747-400 passenger aeroplane, which can carry more cargo by volume than any aeroplane in the world, according to Boeing.

The aerospace company uses its fleet of four Dreamlifters to transport large assembled components of its 787 Dreamliner from suppliers around the world to the final assembly location in Washington state.

The City of Wichita tweeted that no one was injured and no property damage occurred when the plane landed.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...7_71258025.jpg

BBC News - Jumbo jet mistakenly lands at tiny Kansas airport

comment:
This is what happens when TWO pilots rely on pressing buttons into a dumb computer
on the latest bit of technology
and
or fail to have "situational awareness".

[Cows getting bigger]

[irony] I think we should ban 'Merikans from European airspace until they can learn to navigate. [/irony]

[CL300]

zero zero...nope

I give the answer away.. The color of the runway, ( one is black the other is grey) the captain knew he was NOT in FRA, but did not know where they were, they landed, it was the best option at 10 mile final.
I cannot remember if they departed again right away or not.

[repariit]

Boeing has landed 747's at Renton (KRTN), on their 5300 foot runway. They did it successfully several times before this one. It was back in 1969, and the aircraft in this story was one of five early 747's used in the flight test program.

Currently, only 737's are flown from Renton.

[Spaace]

Hard to Believe !

Very hard to believe how an experienced crew positioned for and landed at an airfield almost 7 miles before their actual planned destination, on a runway 18 when they were expecting to land on runway 19 !

Was the WAAS GPS not working, was there no DME and VOR set up, was the ILS for RWY 19 at McConnell unserviceable ??

I am even more puzzled that approach radar were not concerned by their height, heading and airspeed. It must have looked rather strange at 15 miles out and getting more critical by the minute. Was this ever questioned by radar ? They must have thought they were descending a tad early !

Would love to know what was programmed into their GPS flight plan and FMS etcetera....... Was the destination entered incorrectly ????

[AirportHopper]

I am even more puzzled that approach radar were not concerned by their height, heading and airspeed. It must have looked rather strange at 15 miles out and getting more critical by the minute. Was this ever questioned by radar ? They must have thought they were descending a tad early !

Approach control had already handed the flight over to tower well before they got to KAAO, and the tower had already cleared them to land. So it's very likely that no one was watching them on radar, or that the tower might not get height, heading and airspeed indication or alerts if they even have radar.

Perhaps a future local procedural improvement that can be made is for approach to not hand the aircraft over to tower until after passing Jabara.

[racedo]

Not the first time this has occurred........not Continent specific either


2010s

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2000s

• April 17, 2009 - A TAAG Angola 737, bound for Lusaka, Zambia (LUN), mistakenly lands at Zambia Air Force City Airport. Link.
• April 8, 2009 - A Turkish Airlines 737, bound for Tbilisi, Georgia (TBS), mistakenly lands at Tbilisi Vaziani, a military airfield. Link.
• August 16, 2006 - A Turkish Sky Airlines 737, bound for Poznan, Poland (POZ), mistakenly lands at Krzesiny, a military airfield. Link.
• March 29, 2006 - A Eirjet A320, bound for Derry, Northern Ireland (LDY), mistakenly lands at Ballykelly, a military airfield. Link.
• December 16, 2005 - A Pakistan International Airlines 737, bound for Karachi, Pakistan (KHI), mistakenly lands at Faisal, a military airfield. Link.
• September 5, 2005 - A Wings Air MD-80, bound for Minangkabau International Airport in Padang, Indonesia (PDG), mistakenly lands at Tabing Airport, a military airfield. Link.
• June 19, 2004 - The above-mentioned incident of a Northwest Airlines A319, bound for Rapid City, South Dakota (RAP), mistakenly landing at Ellsworth Air Force Base.
• January 9, 2004 - A Shuttle America Saab 340, bound for University Park Airport in State College, Pennsylvania (SCE), mistakenly lands at Mid-State Regional Airport in Philipsburg (PSB). Link.
• January 22, 2003 - A Chatauqua Airlines Embraer 145, chartered by the University of Notre Dame basketball team and bound for South Bend, Indiana (SBN), mistakenly lands at Elkhart Municipal Airport (EKI). See Tom Coyne, "Irish land at wrong airport because of pilot mistake," Associated Press, January 24, 2003.
• July 30, 2002 - A LOT Polish Airlines aircraft, bound for Kaliningrad, Russia (KGD), mistakenly lands at Chkalovsk, a military airfield. Link.
• June 27, 2001 - A TAM Fokker 100, bound for Teresina, Brazil (THE), mistakenly lands at Timon. See "Brazilian pilot mistakes private airstrip for urban airport," Deutsche Presse-Agentur, June 27, 2001.
• March 14, 2001 - A TWA MD-80, bound for Yampa Valley Airport (HDN), in Steamboat Springs, Colorado mistakenly lands at Craig-Moffat Airport (CIG). Link.
• December 8, 2000 - A BAX Global DC-8, bound for Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport (OSC) in Oscoda, Michigan, mistakenly lands at Iosco County Airport (ECA) in East Tawas. Link.
• June 17, 2000 - An Air Nova Dash 8, bound for Mont Joli, Quebec (YYY), mistakenly lands at Rimouski Airport (YXK). See "Pilots land at wrong airport," The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec), June 20, 2000.

[KanzaKS]

Thank You BBC

God grant that on he day I make a mistake, it's not a slow news day in London

[Spooky 2]

TWA, UAL, PAA, WAL, DAL, EAL all have landed at the wrong airport at one time or another during the 60's. Some of these airlines have done it more than once.

[dadtoo]

Not a word about complacency or fatigue....?????

[frieghtdog2000]

1960's

The Captain of the Pan Am B707 which landed at Northolt instead of Heathrow was (allegedly) asked by ATC for his intentions. "I guess I'll take up Chicken Farming" was the reply.

[Pablo26]

Former Cessna driver, current SLF.

Seems to me these pilots did a heluva nice job putting a 74 down on a 6100 foot, 100 ft wide runway at night

Question, if anyone knows what happened after similar "diversions" - what will happen to these pilots? is this a career ender, or will they get back after up after some retraining (assuming an otherwise clean record)?

[The Dominican]

Spooky 2 TWA, UAL, PAA, WAL, DAL, EAL all have landed at the wrong airport at one time or another during the 60's. Some of these airlines have done it more than once.

The situational awareness of the cockpit of the 60's is not that of the cockpits today. fatigue? Complacency? I don't know..! But how on earth does that even happen on a modern cockpit

[Ozlander1]

One of the shortcomings of hand flying the approach.

[Spooky 2]

I don't believe any of these pilots mentioned in my post were terminated. Humilated...yes, but terminated...no. Keep in mind that there was no damage, no injuries so that had to be a big factor in how this turned.

[InSoMnIaC]

Good example of Confirmation Bias.

[LW20]

Quote:
"comment:
This is what happens when TWO pilots rely on pressing buttons into a dumb computer
on the latest bit of technology
and
or fail to have "situational awareness"."

I think if they would have relied on their buttons the dumb computer would have flown them to McConnell AFB if entered correctly in the FMS.

[vintage ATCO]

Approach control had already handed the flight over to tower well before they got to KAAO, and the tower had already cleared them to land. So it's very likely that no one was watching them on radar, or that the tower might not get height, heading and airspeed indication or alerts if they even have radar.

There is a reason why control towers have very large windows . . . . .

[barit1]

Sept. 1975 - P&W in E. Hartford was holding an open house in recognition of its 50th anniversary. For the public display they invited one each of most surviving P&W-powered aircraft, complete from the late 20s. I was mostly interested in the radial-powered equipment, and pleased to see a hangar full of one each of most every engine Pratt ever built.

The elephant on the field - Rentschler Field, 5000' runway - was the UAL 747-100, flown by a Boeing crew with recent short-field experience.

(My funnybone was tickled by a couple of Sikorsky SH-3 and CH-53 interlopers, bearing no recognition of their Brand X engines)

[Navcant]

I'm guessing the airport is closed because there's a Dreamlifter on the only runway.

As far as being closed until the 27th, a NOTAM must have an end date, it cannot be open ended like: "closed until further advised".