Landing at the wrong airport...

v1valarob said:
ATP flight school uses El Paso as a gas up point for XC's. Before we start our cross countries they give us this huge packet with all the airports and all the little things we need to know, and El Paso's had a HUGE warning about not landing at the wrong airport. Good thing I had read it. My partner was the PF and was cleared for the traffic pattern since it was blue skies and not a cloud in sight. He insisted at first the base was the airport we where going to. I assured him that the northern airport was the base, and southern was the civilian. It took about 30 seconds of convincing before he agreed with me. Besides the fact that we could see commercial airline traffic going in as well.

-Rob
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Thats nothing Rob. Chris almost flew us in to Mexico. I just wanted to smack him. You know how he is :banghead:
 
SRA_kbad said:
sssssssSilly :pirate:
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Funniest time ever was when we went to starbucks and he and the coffee maker person where going back and forth about their favorite type of coffee ice cream, and how the ones with whipped cream and cherry where the best.

So gay but so funny.

-Rob
 
v1valarob said:
Funniest time ever was when we went to starbucks and he and the coffee maker person where going back and forth about their favorite type of coffee ice cream, and how the ones with whipped cream and cherry where the best.

So gay but so funny.

-Rob
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:tmi::tmi::tmi:
 
v1valarob said:
ATP flight school uses El Paso as a gas up point for XC's. Before we start our cross countries they give us this huge packet with all the airports and all the little things we need to know, and El Paso's had a HUGE warning about not landing at the wrong airport. Good thing I had read it. My partner was the PF and was cleared for the traffic pattern since it was blue skies and not a cloud in sight. He insisted at first the base was the airport we where going to. I assured him that the northern airport was the base, and southern was the civilian. It took about 30 seconds of convincing before he agreed with me. Besides the fact that we could see commercial airline traffic going in as well.

-Rob
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I had to do a triple check from windscreen to chart to verify landing runway 22 at El Paso. I was coming from the west and was assigned right downwind for 22. The Army airfield next door is probably used to people landing there by accident lol.
 
I'd definitely tell somebody. if it's a minor mistake, it may be easier / better to just hide it, but something as obvious as landing a big jet at the wrong airport is bound to be seen by somebody, even if it is at 4am. If you confess, you may keep your job. If you wait for somebody else to tell the chief pilot, you will lose your job.
 
LoadMasterC141 said:
Is it really that easy to land at the wrong airport?
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Yep...

On my Upgrade OE... while flying with a VERY senior Check Airman (No. 2 on the seniority list in CLE) we almost set up for a wonderful visual pattern to Plattsburg (PBG)... when we should have been a bit further southeast in Burlington (BTV).

My checkairman was also adamant that one guy always fly green needles (VOR nav) and have his bearing pointers up... while the other guy should have his magenta (FMS/GPS) needles up. You know... so that we could cross check each other... and not make mistakes. ;)

It was late at night... end of a long day... VMC... we were on a heading for vectors to the visual... he called the airport "in sight" while pointing out the window. I looked out and immediately saw an airport and I agreed... "in sight". We had everything set up for the visual backed up by the ILS. But... by golly we had "the" airport "in sight" and it wasn't until we were practically midfield downwind of PBG that I realized that BTV was actually behind and to the right of us. We then started our 15 mile out "base turn to final" for BTV... right as Center called us to confirm we actually had BTV in sight and not PBG.

We just acknowledged that we had BTV in sight... but needed a bit of extra time to set up for the approach and that was the reason for the "extended downwind". ;)

Moral... Man, I can see how easy it could've happened.

Bob
 
Camp Humphreys in Korea was just south of Osan- the control zones overlap. Runways were oriented the same direction. I was there when the ILS was first commissioned at Camp Humphreys in the late 1980s. The frequency was only like .2 different from Osans localizer (one was something like 111.1, the other 111.3. The IDs were similar... especially to crews flying C-5s from the US. Only problem was that Humphreys was like 5,000', Osan was something like 15,000' (don't remember the exact numbers, but Osan is LONG).
One night while flying NVGs in the pattern at Humphreys we were turning base when a C-5 flew by us on final... not talking to tower. Yeah, they were tracking a perfect localizer... to the wrong airport. I guess they realized it at the last minute when the runway looked kind of short... and dark... and did a go around. Shocked the &^%$ out of us and the tower controller. Tower came back in a few minutes and told us what they did. I'd like to say I would never have done it... but being tired after a long flight... IDs are close... frequencies are almost the same (is that a 1 or a 3?)... runways alined... a dark night...
 
Blackhawk said:
Only problem was that Humphreys was like 5,000', Osan was something like 15,000' (don't remember the exact numbers, but Osan is LONG).
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Osan? Osan's runway is only like 9000 ft, I remember that cause I had to keep burning off fuel on coronet to be able to land there with a wet runway... Right about Humphreys potential though.
 
SRA_kbad said:
Thats nothing Rob. Chris almost flew us in to Mexico. I just wanted to smack him. You know how he is :banghead:
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I've accidently flown into mexico once. I did pilot training at Laughlin AFB, which is in Del Rio, TX. For those not familiar, it's right on the Rio Grande river, where Texas, Mexico and Hell all share a border.

Anyways, from the MOA there was this thing called the River recovery, which was a visual recovery just barely along the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. Well, I'm flying back and all of a sudden my instructor reached up and turned off the squawk, and started to whistle, "la cuccharacha". I got the hint.
 
Doug Taylor said:
Oh hell yes. I did a sweet visual approach to Offut AFB one day until the controller insisted I join the LOC at Omaha.
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Hell even at the RIGHT airport you still gotta get the right runway! I know a guy who was all set and ready to land on the parallel taxiway :drool:
 
spbrian said:
Hey funny you mention that, I know of somebody who did that too!
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There was a B-757-300 at a certain US airport all lined up to land on a parallel taxiway. This was realized 500 feet and in sidestepping to the runway, the new captain got below Vref by a lot and despite being in a situation that certainly warrants a go-around, they continued and struck the tail.
 
A 757 landed on taxiway Z at EWR on an ILS 11 circle 29. With the left hand turn Z comes into view before 29, and Z is concrete and stands out while 29 is asphalt and blends into all the other asphalt at EWR. Thirdly the VASI is on the right side on the runway, therefore it's on the normal left side of Z.
 
E_Dawg said:
Hell even at the RIGHT airport you still gotta get the right runway! I know a guy who was all set and ready to land on the parallel taxiway :drool:
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This has happened more than once at ATL. Heck, one of the taxiways was used as a runway while 27L was being worked on.
 
Rocketman99 said:
Osan? Osan's runway is only like 9000 ft, I remember that cause I had to keep burning off fuel on coronet to be able to land there with a wet runway... Right about Humphreys potential though.
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My bad... it just seemed like it was 15,000' to an Army pilot. Although I guess with the over runs its a little longer.
 
Apparently it is an issue in the Bay Area with flights lining up to the wrong airports. Also, don't some of the SEA approaches have warnings about lining up/landing on the parallel taxiway?
 
BobDDuck said:
The story that brought this conversation up involved a CHQ crew back in the mid 1990s who had the ND basketball team on board as a charter and while returning to South Bend at 2 in the morning landed at Elkhart. They just took off again and landed in South Bend. Nobody was any the wiser until the travel coordinator for the basketball team asked the Chief Pilot why they stopped in Elkhart first the previous trip.
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It wasn't me, but I'm intimately familiar with this incident.

It was CAVU out, and the CA and FO decided to do a VFR-ish arrival. The scrolled their maps to max range, which obviously provided no guidance. No ground based LOC or ILS was used. They ended up in EKM.

Everyone was told to shut the window shades, they blasted off and went to SBN. The company knew about it right quick. I'm not sure who the notifying party was.

Here's the list of violations I can remember:
1) No landing data for EKM
2) No disp release for EKM-SBN
3) No T/O performance
4) Logbook Fraud (not sure of the technical term) since EKM wasn't logged, and times weren't logged (no ACARS on the jet)
5) No amended destination for the rls
6) Careless/reckless tag

It was a mess. I knew the Captain. If the plane had stayed at the wrong airport, it wouldn't have been as bad.

As anyone who has flown to SBN knows, it's VERY easy to get it goofy with EKM.

Sorry for the late post...
 
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