It happened AGAIN!

[dsee8driver]

A Commercial Flight Lands At The Wrong Airport...
A Shuttle America flight Friday was aiming for University Park Airport (UNV) in Pennsylvania, when it touched down at Mid-State Regional Airport (PSB). The airports are 11 nautical miles apart, offer identical runway orientation -- 16/34 and 6/24 -- with different layouts, and both fields are non-towered (a reminder to self-announce, listen AND look when operating near a non-towered field). The two airports also have a VOR situated roughly between them. "When the pilot walked in, he said 'Here's one for the news,'" airport worker Joanne Shields told the Centre Daily. The eight passengers had to wait on board, for security reasons, for about an hour until a van was dispatched to finish their journey. Those familiar with the two airports say it was a relatively easy mistake to make for VFR pilots. The pilot was apparently unfamiliar with the area but there were ways to check. Aside from the VOR, both airports have an ILS. The airport spokesman said that after the pilot phoned his dispatcher, a long stream of forms started coming out of the fax machine. "I guess he had to report it as an incident of some sort," Shields said.

 

[bart]

Will somebody buy these guys a GPS? I can understand a student pilot, or getting dispatched to the wrong airport and pissing off a customer, but 121? C'mon.

 

[NDPILOT]

be careful, you probably just jinxed (sp?) yourself. Shuttle isn't the first 121 carrier to land at the wrong airport and I bet they won't be the last. Just hope I never do that....

 

[dsee8driver]

There those who have and those who will. It happened to us a year or so ago and there were 2 captains flying !

 

[ShawnC]

Why didn't he just take off and fly the 11 nm? Is there some probitation in Part 121. I can understand if they still had a form to fill out, don't know why he didn't just fly to the other airport.

 

[avbug]

In aviation, the statement that "there are those who have, and those who will," is often heard, but it's just not true.

However, landing at the wrong airfield (or on the wrong carrier) isn't unheard of...this event is far from the last.

 

[dsee8driver]

I would think you need a re dispatch and company gets involved. Then fuel requirements and a new weight & balance but most of all the Friendly Airmans Association!

 

[dsee8driver]

In aviation, the statement that "there are those who have, and those who will," is often heard, but it's just not true.

However, landing at the wrong airfield (or on the wrong carrier) isn't unheard of...this event is far from the last.

Ya know avbug I'm not military so I have no idea and I understand about it at an airport BUT the wrong carrier?? Wow...

 

[Flywrite]

Flying the 11 miles is not allowed under FAR121.

I forget which carrier it was, but not too many years ago I heard a story about a crew that had a similar mishap. They took off and flew to the correct airport. They ended up being hung by the Feds, not for landing at the wrong airport (apparently the feds view that as a situation requiring a slap on the wrist and remedial training) but for taking off with passengers without a dispatch release from an airport with no takeoff data available.

 

[dsee8driver]

The guys that landed at the wrong airport here had to go through a 609 ride and that's it.

 

[ShawnC]

You need to be redispatched. Also, if they don't have takeoff data for that particular airport, they cannot legally depart.

So that was probably one of the things in that fax that they got.

How long does it take to generate the take-off data?

 

[avbug]

Civil aircraft landing at the wrong field have it easy. Aircraft trapping on the wrong boat get detained while their aircraft gets repainted in rival squadron colors, before beign sent packing-- home in shame.

Pilots trapping aboard the wrong boat with less than an okay three wire, are summarily shot, or tossed over the fantail.

I've shown up over the wrong fire, when several are nearby. And I personally know someone who received a dispatch coordinate and followed it without question, to the middle of the Great Salt Lake. Once there, he began to orbit, and advised dispatch that he couldn't see any smoke....just missed the fire by about sixty miles.

I took a sim check for an interview once that involved the ILS 25 at LAX. I executed it flawlessly, too, for an approach with no glideslope. Even tuned it in and identified...the VOR. Couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting a glideslope. Didn't get the job, either, and I still can't figure out why. I think it was my cologne. (eau du avgas), or possibly my lazy eye. I think it was profiling.

As you can see, I'm not one of those who has, or who will. I'm one of those who has come really perilously close during repeated inexplicable bursts of sheer stupidity, but never actually has, and who hopefully never will.

 

[kevdog]

I took a sim check for an interview once that involved the ILS 25 at LAX. I executed it flawlessly, too, for an approach with no glideslope. Even tuned it in and identified...the VOR. Couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting a glideslope. Didn't get the job, either, and I still can't figure out why. I think it was my cologne. (eau du avgas), or possibly my lazy eye. I think it was profiling.

Did you bust G/S inop mins?