How could this happen..
 

A Polish passenger plane arriving in the Russian region of Kaliningrad mistakenly landed at a military airbase instead of the local civilian airport.

The plane, operated by Poland's Lot Airlines, landed at a Russian military airfield a few miles away from its intended destination of Khrabovo civilian airport, ITAR-Tass news agency reported.


Anyone knows details on this one?

Very vague here:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_640283.html?menu=

Don't know about this incident. However, in a former life I remember aircraft often made an unplanned fly through of Dishforth when they were actually after Leeming.

But hey, they were both just off the A1 and right next to a roundabout, could have happened to anybody - and you would be amazed how often it did :D

Bassersdorf (near ZRH) has caught a few, also.

I seem to remember a story of a BA 747,classic I think,aiming for St Athan instead of CWL when it was on its way to BAMC for a maintenance input

A French charter jet landed at Aqaba instead of Eilat a number of years ago, and a German charter jet full of Swedish netballers destined for Malta landed at Hal Far instead of Luqa...

Re: How could this happen..
 

In the early 60's an airliner on its way to LHR landed at Northolt, a military airfield.

Didnt a 737 land at Langford Lodge instead of Belfast a few years ago?

Well...
It DID seem to happen before..
I've been given examples from the 60's (what , about forty years ago..) by some of you here. How often does it happen today, one lands at the military field by mistake.... :) ???

Also in the sixties, a Qantas 707 and an Air India flight landed at RAF Changi by mistake. Paya Lebar was the civil airport of Singapore at the time. However, both runways were 02/20, only a few miles apart.

a spantax convair (880 or 990) in hamburg finkenwerder (where airbusses are assembled) instead of hamburg fuhlsbuettel also comes to mind (late 70's ??)

Hi reynoldsno1, do you have any details/history of that Luqa/Hal Far mix up in Malta?

Rgds,

320DRIVER

It's dead easy - just a combination of circumstances. As a Heathrow controller I've personal experience of:

a) A/c mistaking Northolt for Heathrow and ATC insisting that they turn left a bit!
b) A foreign 707, when told "12 miles from touchdown on 09L", having been turned onto the ILS at 4000 ft replied, no we're 150 miles from touchdown; our destination is Manchester".
c) A foreign DC8 landed at Heathrow and as he tirned off the runway said "Sh*t; we're supposed to be at Gatwick".

In the late fifities an RAF Comet, with the Duke of Edinburgh on board, landed at disused Takoradi in Malta instead of RAF Luqa. Taxiied round and took off again for the three mile flight. Won't mention the highly respected captain's name in case he is still with us.

Only 4 or 5 years ago, a Northwest 747 landed at BRU, while he should have been at FRA.

Also, what about the Saudia 747 classic that landed at the Air Force base at Madras by mistake a few years ago. All the seats and galleys had to be removed so that it could take off again.

I've heard that people landing at Omaha in Nebraska often landed at Offutt AFB by mistake - hence a comment appeared in one airline's flight briefing area: "keep off utt"!!

A BEA Viscount once landed at RNAS Abbotsinch (now EGPF) instead of Renfrew Airport

I heard a story of a guy who owns a massive warehouse on the approach to Los Angeles he got "Welcome to San Francisco" painted on the roof just to scare the pax !!!!!


rt

Don't forget March 2001 - TWA 641(MD-80) landed at Craig-Moffat instead of Yampa Valley(17 miles away), then got stuck in the mud!!

Remember in the '80s while working at airfield in North Scotland, radar got confused between a P3 and an E3 and sent them both to the wrong place. Poor marshaller had a hell of a shock when the P3 he was expecting appeared to have a very large dinner plate on the top.