Oops, Wrong Airport .....

[melax]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40176462

'Pilot error' blamed for wrong South Dakota airport landing

Image caption The flight landed about six miles prematurely
Federal investigators are blaming pilot error for causing a Delta Air Lines flight carrying 129 people to land at the wrong airport in South Dakota.

The flight from Minneapolis landed at the Ellsworth Air Force Base, about six miles (10km) from Rapid City.

The US National Transportation Safety Board blamed Delta's two pilots for not using all the instruments at their disposal to determine their location.

The plane was held for more than two hours before it could take off again.

The incident happened last July but the NTSB report into it was released on Tuesday.

According to officials, the two airports have runways that face the same direction - from northwest to southeast - which likely contributed to the error.

The two Delta pilots had been suspended pending the inquiry.

Delta "offered a gesture of apology for the inconvenience" to the passengers involved.

A similar incident occurred in 2004 when another passenger plane landed at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

 

[derg]

Old news. They've been back to work for a long time.

 

[melax]

Old news. They've been back to work for a long time.

Just realized it happened last July, the final report was issued today....

https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/R...ID=20160708X61700&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=IA

Years ago at my FBO, a CFI landed at night at a military facility, she quickly realized the error and took off (ala touch and - go ), but the next day we got visitors, and she had a long meeting in the chief pilot's office with a couple of MIB's...
They were able to track her flight.

 

[Itchy]

I wonder how much less/more trouble the crew would have been in had they realized at 300' and went around?

 

[mastermags]

Just realized it happened last July, the final report was issued today....

https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/R...ID=20160708X61700&AKey=1&RType=Final&IType=IA

Years ago at my FBO, a CFI landed at night at a military facility, she quickly realized the error and took off (ala touch and - go ), but the next day we got visitors, and she had a long meeting in the chief pilot's office with a couple of MIB's...
They were able to track her flight.

The one thing they teach you, if you eff it up, do NOT try to self-correct.

Protip.

 

[gotWXdagain]

I wonder how much less/more trouble the crew would have been in had they realized at 300' and went around?

Probably less, actually. Civilians do low approaches- mind you with ATC permission, of course, and typically its instrument approaches for training- at AFB's every day.

 

[Cptnchia]

My dad was part of a 4 ship flight of F100s that landed by mistake at a SAC base in the 50s. Compounding the issue was the fact that the base was on an alert lockdown. They were physically dragged from the cockpits by the APs, stripped, blindfolded, handcuffed, and thrown into a room, and held for several hours.

Took the intervention of a TAC general to get them released. According to him, they would've been treated better if they were defecting Soviet pilots instead of TAC pilots. There was no love loss between SAC and TAC back then.

 

[MikeD]

Old news too that it would be crew error. Who else is responsible for landing the plane at the correct field? Obviously unintentional to land at the wrong field, but crew error nonetheless.

Had to have sucked on landing rollout though...."hey, check out all these cool B-1's parked on the ramp! Oh oh....."

Just as the story mentions, Northwest did the same thing in '04.

 

[ppragman]

Knock on wood...but I really can't see how you do this. Back up the runway you're landing on with your instrumentation and this can't really happen. I say this as someone who has unabashedly started to line up on the wrong piece of pavement until I've noticed that "hey, the loc isn't coming in, sonovobitch that's the right!" If you set yourself up right and look at your instruments as you get close I feel like it'd be really tough to do this.

Again, knock on wood, not to say that I couldn't make this mistake...but this is a lot more preventable than say, an altitude bust.

 

[Nark]

Knock on wood...but I really can't see how you do this. Back up the runway you're landing on with your instrumentation and this can't really happen. I say this as someone who has unabashedly started to line up on the wrong piece of pavement until I've noticed that "hey, the loc isn't coming in, sonovobitch that's the right!" If you set yourself up right and look at your instruments as you get close I feel like it'd be really tough to do this.

Again, knock on wood, not to say that I couldn't make this mistake...but this is a lot more preventable than say, an altitude bust.

Remember that night we were approaching MKE. Our coworker was cleared the visual.... and completely got lost. Only if he had taken the sage advice of the guy who checked him out...

Back up your visuals ladies... It'll save you lots of embarrassment and carpet dancing...

To wit: in the military, doing helicopter air assaults to grass LZ's that look a lot like every other grass LZ, each member of the flight backs up the flight lead. What a novel concept... There's a common theme here.

 

[learflyer]

Knock on wood...but I really can't see how you do this. Back up the runway you're landing on with your instrumentation and this can't really happen. I say this as someone who has unabashedly started to line up on the wrong piece of pavement until I've noticed that "hey, the loc isn't coming in, sonovobitch that's the right!" If you set yourself up right and look at your instruments as you get close I feel like it'd be really tough to do this.

Again, knock on wood, not to say that I couldn't make this mistake...but this is a lot more preventable than say, an altitude bust.

It can happen to the best and obviously it has. The simple answer is complacency mixed with a little bit of fatigue along with not backing up the visual with some electronics. This recently happened at my very large 135. They were trying to get into one tiny little AZ airport, but landed at another tiny little airport in AZ, just up the street. Same RWY configurations and everything.

Myself and another crew were on the visual to what we thought was Jabarra Airport in Wichita, but we were looking straight at Beech Field. We went around as soon as we realized the mistake. About 400'. Around the same time, tower came up on guard to warn us.

This is way back in the day before the internet or before sites like this. So we got away with it. Heck, this was even before we were able to file ASAP's.

 

[gotWXdagain]

I know this makes me persona non-grata but you could also spend three seconds looking at the VFR chart on your EFB, too. I mean that's how I did it, and all my flights to Rapid City ended at the FBO.

Slightly off topic but the guy living off the east side of the field at RAP has his own dirt strip, about a half mile off the main runway and aligned.

 

[MikeD]

I know this makes me persona non-grata but you could also spend three seconds looking at the VFR chart on your EFB, too. I mean that's how I did it, and all my flights to Rapid City ended at the FBO.

Slightly off topic but the guy living off the east side of the field at RAP has his own dirt strip, about a half mile off the main runway and aligned.

That logic of actually looking at a VFR chart may make you a blaspheming heretic in the 121 world, but you are welcomed by the helo world.

 

[adk]

I know this makes me persona non-grata but you could also spend three seconds looking at the VFR chart on your EFB, too. I mean that's how I did it, and all my flights to Rapid City ended at the FBO.

What VFR chart?

 

[deadstick]

That logic of actually looking at a VFR chart may make you a blaspheming heretic in the 121 world, but you are welcomed by the helo world.

I've heard of people getting jammed up for not circling the right way on after an IAP or on a visual. That info isn't on the enroute charts or approach plates, but it is on a sectional.


And before little mushroom clouds pop up across the internets, I'll leave this.

 

[gotWXdagain]

I've heard of people getting jammed up for not circling the right way on after an IAP or on a visual. That info isn't on the enroute charts or approach plates, but it is on a sectional.


And before little mushroom clouds pop up across the internets, I'll leave this.

Interestingly enough at one of the airports we frequent its so expected to fly right traffic into one of the runways we use that ATC gets chippy sometimes when someone unfamiliar doesn't. Trouble is, it's not a published right hand pattern, even though it makes sense to be one because it keeps you away from nearby tall buildings, over less populated areas, and the runway parallels the runways at a busy Bravo six miles away where the right side puts you on the "outside."

 

[MikeD]

I've heard of people getting jammed up for not circling the right way on after an IAP or on a visual. That info isn't on the enroute charts or approach plates, but it is on a sectional.


And before little mushroom clouds pop up across the internets, I'll leave this.

You should be able to circle from an IAP whatever direction you want to, unless particular circling restrictions are stated as a note on the plate.

 

[deadstick]

You should be able to circle from an IAP whatever direction you want to, unless particular circling restrictions are stated as a note on the plate.

I did, too, until about...oh...four years ago.

 

[BobDDuck]

I know this makes me persona non-grata but you could also spend three seconds looking at the VFR chart on your EFB, too. I mean that's how I did it, and all my flights to Rapid City ended at the FBO.

Slightly off topic but the guy living off the east side of the field at RAP has his own dirt strip, about a half mile off the main runway and aligned.

Most 121 operations don't have VFR charts available, and don't have moving map capabilities, even if they have the chart.

 

[Nark]

Most 121 operations don't have VFR charts available, and don't have moving map capabilities, even if they have the chart.

They do if they're running Jeppview and Fore flight as backup.

We were issued (well they were...) because their cheap-ass nearsightedness didn't purchase iPads with enough storage.