Dreamlifter lands at wrong airport and can't take off

[Adler]

Tell me about a time you made a serious error of judgment

...anytime he posts on JC.

 

[Cptnchia]

I

However, some mistakes are larger then others. Larger mistakes have larger consequences.

I know a few airline crews who landed at the wrong airport. Only one captain got terminated when he elected to take off again without notifying the company. He got nailed for departing without takeoff data. All the others didn't even get a letter from the FAA. I guess they don't take the same view as you.

 

[Autothrust Blue]

I know a few airline crews who landed at the wrong airport. Only one captain got terminated when he elected to take off again without notifying the company. He got nailed for departing without takeoff data. All the others didn't even get a letter from the FAA. I guess they don't take the same view as you.

Tampa, St. Pete and MacDill AFB, anyone?

We had a similar incident in the Metroliner days at my airline. Force knowledge is that they weren't in deep amounts of doo-doo (since, even in those days, we largely have something called a Just Culture) until they taxied back again and blasted off out of the offline airport (without numbers) and continued to the destination. The lack of performance data was the straw that broke the camel's back in that particular case as well.

Thing about this sort of thing is that the odds are, you'll NEVER do it again.