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DELTA=Don't Ever Land There Again — Parallax Forums

DELTA=Don't Ever Land There Again

ercoerco Posts: 20,256
in General Discussion
C'mon Delta, with GPS, computers and COMMON SENSE, how can a commercial flight land at the wrong airport, much less a military airfield? Well on the bright side, this pilot won't ever (get the chance to) make this mistake again. He'll move on to making newer, grosser errors. That's progress!

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/09/us/delta-flight-lands-at-air-force-base/index.html

Comments

  • Hal AlbachHal Albach Posts: 747
    That goes both ways. A while ago an Air Force C-17 landed at Peter O"Knight airport in Tampa, which lines up with the intended runway at MacDill AFB 5 miles away. The O"knight runway is 3,400 feet long and the MacDill runway is 11,000 feet long.
    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=air+force+landing+error+in+tampa&qpvt=air+force+landing+error+in+tampa&view=detail&mid=2D8B323F4D34E8432B2B2D8B323F4D34E8432B2B&FORM=VRDGAR
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    Later, that C-17 successfully took off from that wrong landing location. So two wrongs made a right. Not the case for this Cessna which landed on a public street...

  • Hal AlbachHal Albach Posts: 747
    Wow! I guess that pilot failed to notice a pick-up parked on his "runway".
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    I was flying a C-172 around MA and landing at Westfield-Barnes. I had an iPad on the yoke with Foreflight, and the 172 had a G1000 glass cockpit. I managed to line up on the wrong airport. The wrong airport looked very similar and if it weren't for that big fancy display I would have never headed in that direction. Apparently I was more concerned with the pictures than reading the text on the pictures. Luckily I was outside of both airport's airspace and hadn't made any calls yet. If I did I'm sure ATC would have berated me long before I was able to land.

    Rapid City Regional Airport's control tower is in continuous operation, it's odd ATC didn't catch this. I wonder if the controller was sleeping..
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    When my Cessna 152 was on leaseback, it was a popular rental plane with instructors because it didn't have a "glass cockpit" and the associated distractions, just old-school no-nonsense instruments that forced students pilots to use their heads. It was also popular since it had full instrumentation and rented to pilots going for their instrument rating for a lot less than an instrument C-172.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2016-07-10 00:31
    Several years ago, I watched a seaplane land on the local lagoon:

    kah_tai_lagoon.jpg

    It's pretty small, and no plane has ever landed there before or since. Plus, there are pilings hiding just below the surface that could easily have snagged a pontoon. The local cops were on it immediately, and I was wondering how the pilot would manage to get out of there. Remarkably, the plane was barely able to take off upwind and get airborne enough to bank away from the hill at the end of the lagoon.

    -Phil
    kah_tai_lagoon.jpg
    800 x 648 - 99K
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2016-07-10 03:30
    Wow, if you primary criterion for identifying airports is runway is orientation, you're in the wrong biz. The direction of the prevailing wind, which determines runway orientation, isn't likely to change much between neighboring airports, 10 miles apart.
  • jonesjones Posts: 281
    edited 2016-07-10 05:21
    The runways are nearly aligned, but if you look on Google Earth, Ellsworth is larger, more built-up, and the buildings and parallel taxiway are on the opposite side of the runway. Not to mention the B-1 bombers parked on the ramp. It would be hard to mistake the two, even if one didn't bother to look at a chart or at least look at a GPS.

    It's a bit amusing that the FAA airport information for Rapid City Regional contains the following : BE ALERT DO NOT MISTAKE ELLSWORTH AFB, LOCATED 6.5 NM NNW FOR RAPID CITY RGNL.

  • HughHugh Posts: 362
    In 2004 a B2 Spirit flew across the Atlantic, performed a display at the Farnborough airshow (in the UK) and flew back. This impressive feat of endurance would have been all the more impressive if the display had been at Farnborough, not Blackbushe, a small airport five miles away (and without a large number of static aircraft on display, several acres of marquees and several thousand cars parked nearby).
  • mindrobotsmindrobots Posts: 6,506
    Maybe the B2 stealth technology is *that* good! It just appeared to be flying over the other airport!
  • jonesjones Posts: 281
    Considering what the B-2 is for, that isn't very reassuring.
  • whickerwhicker Posts: 749
    I wonder if there was some sort of "snap" feature on the guidance system, where the pilot pointed at the general location zoomed too far out, and of course it picked the AFB. Not excusing it, but in their terminology it would be called a "contributing factor".

    Runway 13?, 14? hmm what's the difference.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    jones wrote: »
    Considering what the B-2 is for, that isn't very reassuring.

    Agreed, no wonder it took so long to get Bin Laden.

    "Sorry about that, Chief. Missed it by THAT much. That's the second biggest runway I've seen today. Would you believe I can land on my second attempt?"
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    Time for GPS navigation systems for pilots?
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