kmyfm20s Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 Have any of you landed at the wrong airport before? I'm glad I not that captain! I want to see this get off the the ground on that short runway. Flaps anyone? http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/boeing-jumbo-jet-hauling-dreamliner-parts-lands-at-wrong-kansas-airport/2013/11/21/10f1bf84-52aa-11e3-9ee6-2580086d8254_story.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aviatoreb Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 Ooops. Well I have chosen the wrong airport - with overpriced fuel. And rude people at the FBO - so does that count as landing at the wrong airport? But never a navagation error. How does that even happy to a big airplane like that - do they need to do every landing as an IFR approach just to nail the approach? No pattern approaches for a guppy like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar Avalle Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 When I was learning to fly (no GPS...) on my first cross country I nearly landed on the wrong airport. I was supposed to land in Albany and close by there is an rport with a similar layout. Very nervous (first filght away from the base by myslelf) I lined up to join the downwind. But once I got closer I realized my mistake communicated it to ATC and we all got a nice laugh out of it... Since then, I make sure that I have a nice GPS with all the info in the box. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSMooniac Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 That is my home airport, and it actually the DreamLIFTER, not a Dreamliner. It is a modified Boeing 747 used to transport Dreamliner sections from around the world to Seattle and Charleston for final assembly. That airport is 9 miles north on the extended centerline of one of McConnell AFB's runways and their traffic flies over our traffic pattern regularly. Supposedly this crew was even on an approach and landed way, way short! Supposed to takeoff at 1:00 CST and a live stream is here: http://www.kwch.com/news/local-news/boeing-dreamlifter-lands-at-jabara/-/21054266/23081256/-/oma90hz/-/index.html although it has been "offline" since I've been checking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Mazer Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 Not a Dreamliner but a Dreamliner Lifter. It's a modified 747. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSMooniac Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 another live feed: http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Boeing-jet-lands-at-Jabara-Airport-232781081.html takeoff scheduled in 8 minutes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff_S Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 I grew up in that neck of the woods and have landed at Jabara. The report is right...there are three airports very close together...in fact, the Beech Field airport is almost literally across the street from Jabara. But it's amazing to think that professional pilots could confuse a basic GA airport such as Jabara with a behemoth like McConnell AFB. Perhaps that long flight from Italy had them tired. Or maybe, the pilots are all overweight and suffered from sleep apnea throughout their voyage and thus were disoriented! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetdriven Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 They just took off. Jabara to McConnell. total flight time ~.2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlunseth Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 Sigh. They obviously were flying with paper and had no iPads in the cockpit, nor a good moving map. We still have better equipment in GA than they do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSMooniac Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 They just took off. Jabara to McConnell. total flight time ~.2 And the flying crew flew in from NY to replace last night's crew! I imagine that is some sort of record to fly halfway across the country for a 15 minute flight. I can't imagine the stain on the original crew now...fortunately no metal was bent and they didn't tear up my home base, but I can't imagine the FAA and their employer make them pay somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARZ Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 Please somebody tell me they have the audio somewhere...... The recordings indicate that the crew was still disoriented about its location, believing they had landed at yet another airport just to the north of Jabara—Beech Factory Airport, which is home to Beechcraft Inc.'s facilities. Later, one of the controllers asked the crew of the 747 if they had determined their location. One of the crew replied, "We think we have a pretty good pulse" about the landing site, then said "Let me ask you this, how many airports [near McConnell] are there?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARZ Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 It's in there... http://www.liveatc.net/recordings.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marauder Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 Darn glass panels! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N201MKTurbo Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 When I was a wee pup I once called the wrong airport for ATA transition. That was pretty comical in retrospect, could have been dangerous. Thank god for NASA forms... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruiser Posted November 21, 2013 Report Share Posted November 21, 2013 Why, if the controller knew where they were AFTER they landed, he couldn't have helped them out with a little guidance BEFORE they landed?????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
201er Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 This is how something like that can happen. What a mind fuck. I had trouble figuring out which one Witchita was when I flew into there but luckily it was the biggest one. Also, luckily you get in less trouble landing in those uncontrolled airports than into a Bravo. Remember that guy who landed in JFK thinking it was FRG!? Here's the audio file. It's a riot. Wow were they lost! Even on the ground they couldn't figure out which airport they were in. It took a while. They saw a plane fly overhead and asked ATC what airport they were over to figure out where they were. I'm surprised they didn't climb out of the plane and run into the office to find out where they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N33GG Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 I was giving an IPC and the pilot looked at the wrong plate for a nearby airport, dialed in the wrong ILS frequency, spoke to the right airport, and flew the wrong ILS. I kept waiting for him to catch the error, but he didn't. The orientation of the two airports and runways was such that everything looked reasonable. That was a busted instrument check. It can happen. Always double check everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isaacpr7 Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 When I first started flying fixed wing aircraft many years ago I moved to Fort Bragg. As I was attempting to make an approach into FAY the ATC nudged me in the right direction because I was actally making an approach into Pope Airforce Base (thank God for flight following, lol). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooneymite Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 Landing at the wrong airport usually happens in VMC. If pilots would refrain from looking out the window, this wouldn't happen! It's ATC's oldest trick: vector you until you're disoriented, then clear you for a visual. There's a famous one where a US carrier landed at the wrong airport in Europe. Every passenger in the back watching the moving map knew it was the wrong airport, but this vital information never migrated to the cockpit. Seriously, if you don't understand how this happen , wait until you get some more experience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyboy0681 Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 It didn't appear to be a shortfield takeoff. He didn't even stand on the brakes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aviatoreb Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 It didn't appear to be a shortfield takeoff. He didn't even stand on the brakes. Looking at wiki - the Dreamlifter requires 9,199ft at MTOW. I bet they offloaded all the cargo and everything else that wasn't tied down, and maybe offloaded a bunch of fuel (into jerry cans?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyboy0681 Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 Looking at wiki - the Dreamlifter requires 9,199ft at MTOW. I bet they offloaded all the cargo and everything else that wasn't tied down, and maybe offloaded a bunch of fuel (into jerry cans?). But a spokeswoman for the airport authority, Valerie Wise, cited favorable weather Thursday and the fact that much of the fuel had been used in the flight from JFK -- which lightened the weight of the plane -- for the conclusion that it was safe to take off on the shorter runway. "The engineers have been running calculations all night," she said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aviatoreb Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 Landing at the wrong airport usually happens in VMC. If pilots would refrain from looking out the window, this wouldn't happen! It's ATC's oldest trick: vector you until you're disoriented, then clear you for a visual. There's a famous one where a US carrier landed at the wrong airport in Europe. Every passenger in the back watching the moving map knew it was the wrong airport, but this vital information never migrated to the cockpit. Seriously, if you don't understand how this happen , wait until you get some more experience! I don't doubt what you are saying in the least. This seems to happen more often than one might guess, with several examples of airliner jets landing at the wrong airport. These are highly trained professional crews. That suggests it is more than simply sufficient to laugh at a errant crew, but there seems to be some sort of easy-to-fall in trap in the IFR system, the way we work with plates, frequencies, talking to controllers and so forth, that together with the equipment on the big birds...there must be some systematic easy to fall in trap. I listened to the ATC live - it was painful to listen to since you just feel really bad for those guys trying to deal with what they know is going to be a huge mar on their careers. Will these guys be flying professionally anymore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSMooniac Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 They couldn't offload cargo... a big 787 fuselage section because it requires a special loading/unloading fixture + vehicle. I suspect they were very light and didn't need to do much at all. I'm more concerned about the runway since that is where I'm based! The director of airports stated yesterday that the runway was designed for 60,000 lb planes...not the 600,000 of the Dreamlifter! They did a visual inspection and noted no damage, but hedged saying they would need to look again in detail in the spring after the freeze/thaw cycles. My plane is currently hangared there awaiting an engine overhaul, and if they need to do any major repairs before I can get back in the air I might get stuck there for a very long time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aviatoreb Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 They couldn't offload cargo... a big 787 fuselage section because it requires a special loading/unloading fixture + vehicle. I suspect they were very light and didn't need to do much at all. I'm more concerned about the runway since that is where I'm based! The director of airports stated yesterday that the runway was designed for 60,000 lb planes...not the 600,000 of the Dreamlifter! They did a visual inspection and noted no damage, but hedged saying they would need to look again in detail in the spring after the freeze/thaw cycles. My plane is currently hangared there awaiting an engine overhaul, and if they need to do any major repairs before I can get back in the air I might get stuck there for a very long time! Ugh - that would be an expensive mistake if they need to redo the runway. Maybe they could mow some grass to let folks like you with small airplanes escape? Or maybe fly out from a taxiway? I don't know - what do they do in a situation like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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