C-17 lands at Peter O'Night instead of MacDill

I thought the military was required to have an ILS/LPV or some sort of approach course put in to prevent situations like this one...

EDIT: Funny they can't identify the right airport, but they sure can identify the end of the runway when they see it coming up A LOT quicker than an 11k runway would...
 
Having been to Peter O Knight numerous times, I have to say, how the heck can ANYONE mistake that airport for Macdill, especially when flying a heavy jet???

That being said, how SWEET is that C17? Landing at an airport that small and stopping in time? That's freaking awesome!
 
Mark815 said:
That being said, how SWEET is that C17? Landing at an airport that small and stopping in time? That's freaking awesome!
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Know what else is freaking awesome? I have it on good authority that, were the runway rated for its weight, that airplane could unload its cargo, load fuel, and take off again with less than maximum thrust.

~Fox
 
This happened in Kansas about 10 years ago. A fully loaded KC-135 landed on RWY 13 (5,099') at Billard in Topeka. He was aiming for his HOME BASE, RWY 13 (12,803') at Forbes Field. Billard is 7 MILES north of Forbes and the city of Topeka are between the two!
It took two days to off load the KC-135 so it could take off.

Funny stuff........
 
Acrofox said:
Know what else is freaking awesome? I have it on good authority that, were the runway rated for its weight, that airplane could unload its cargo, load fuel, and take off again with less than maximum thrust.

~Fox
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Ridiculous! I love watching the C17 do it's demo at airshows. An airplane that big shouldn't be able to do the things it does.
 
USMCmech said:
That said, the C-17 can stop on a dime. We had them land at Quantico which only had a 4K runway. They couldn't take off with any cargo however.
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I still remember the F/A-18 from the Andrews USMCR unit VMFA-321 that was going to the Quantico museum after the squadron was decommissioned. Landing at Quantico, the pilot couldn't stop the jet and overran the runway, damaging it pretty heavily.
 
USMCmech said:
When I was at Flight Safety Academy in VRB, we had as student do a touch and go at McDill thinking it was this airport. I NEVER would have thought an AirForce crew would make the reverse mistake.

That said, the C-17 can stop on a dime. We had them land at Quantico which only had a 4K runway. They couldn't take off with any cargo however.
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No they could, they would leave with the H60's and equipment in the back all the time when I was there, occasionally get airborne before the 2000ft marker too. Taking off RWY 2 was an extreme hazard to anybody fishing in the Chopawomsic Creek though, because they would go full power with the rear gear on the edge of the runway with the tail hanging over Perimeter Rd. Saw a john-boat get flipped once with 2 guys in fishing.
 
I'm surprised no one has said it, but the sweet "commercial pilot" in the news story wearing epaulettes who is probably a flight instructor had some sweet aviators on.
 
89-LX said:
I'm surprised no one has said it, but the sweet "commercial pilot" in the news story wearing epaulettes who is probably a flight instructor had some sweet aviators on.
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Sweet is how you describe a dude?

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Says it came from southwest Asia, so fatigue could have played a part, but that pilot will always be known as the gear down clown, lol.

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boondr said:
No they could, they would leave with the H60's and equipment in the back all the time when I was there, occasionally get airborne before the 2000ft marker too.
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My understanding was that they could take the cargo, but not enough fuel to go anywhere. I guess they worked out a plan where they could stop for fuel.

They had just started using the C-17 the last year I was at HMX-1. I was on the first international flight that returned to Quanitico instead of Andrews. We flew in from Guam to Virginia.
 
MikeD said:
I still remember the F/A-18 from the Andrews USMCR unit VMFA-321 that was going to the Quantico museum after the squadron was decommissioned. Landing at Quantico, the pilot couldn't stop the jet and overran the runway, damaging it pretty heavily.
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When I was there they would bring in a field arresting gear detachment from Cherry Point if they were going to bring in F/A-18s. Without ordnance, they could take off just fine but getting stopped was marginal.
 
drunkenbeagle said:
I'll take the other side on this one.

The two airports look *identical* from the air, are right next to each other, on identical peninsulas. Runway numbers are the same.

Has happened before, will happen again. Fortunately nothing broke and no one got hurt (this time)

When approach tells you "cleared for the visual 27" and you are staring at 27, easy to do when you are tired.
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Southwest and American have landed on 32 at MQY before. Its is exactly 10 miles away from BNA and in line with runway 31. Both a roughly the same length too, MQY at just over 8000 and 31 in BNA at 10k, oh and they both have a crossing runway that are the exact same angle... It can definitely happen.
 
jtrain609 said:
The Tampa Bay area is pretty much world renowned for how easy it is to land at the wrong airport. This isn't surprising at all to me.

El Paso is the same deal, in my mind. The first time I went in there, I was blown away at how easy it would be to land on the [former] Air Force base and not the international airport.
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:)
 
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