NWA A319 Lands at Wrong Airport

[767-300ER]

Oops! Airliner Lands At Wrong Airport

Passengers Told Not To Peek

Jun 20, 2004 12:18 pm US/Central

A Northwest Airlines flight that was headed to Rapid City, S.D., landed a few miles off course at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and passengers had to wait in the plane for more than three hours while their crew was interrogated.

Passengers on Northwest Flight 1152, an Airbus A-319 from St. Paul, expected to be welcomed to Rapid City Regional Airport on Saturday, but after about five minutes they were told to close their window shades and not look out, said passenger Robert Morrell.

"He (the pilot) hemmed and he hawed and he said 'We have landed at an Air Force base a few miles from the Rapid City airport and now we are going to figure out how we're going to get from here to there,"' Morrell told the St. Paul Pioneer Press by cell phone during the delay Saturday.

Eventually, the captain and first officer were replaced by a different Northwest crew for the short hop to the right airport.

Northwest confirmed that the crew made an "unscheduled landing."

"The situation is under review and we have nothing further to add," said Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch. He would not identify the cockpit crew, or say if the pilot made an error.

Ellsworth controls all air space 40 miles around the base and clears landings at both the civilian airport and the base.

The city's airport runway is "just over the hill" from Ellsworth, and the Northwest crew had to descend through a layer of clouds, said a base spokeswoman, Lt. Christine Millette.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

 

[AMRCostUnit]

The same thing happened to a crew from our 141 squardon in the late 80's but the other way around. They landed at the civilian airport instead of the base. The A/C was IP and, based on his reputation, it couldn't have happend to a "nicer" guy.

"This will be a visual approach BACKED UP by the ILS on frequency..." in most cases will prevent these newsworthy events.

Unit

 

[Bandit60]

This is incredible for me to believe. Does this aircraft have an fms on board that can back up a visual approach. I don't fly that type of aircraft but I back up all my visual approaches with an approach if possible. This airport has plenty of approaches for them to back up.

 

[embpic]

I used to fly into Rapid City all the time and was wondering when this would happen. They are very close together and the runways have the same orientation. If you were unfamiliar with the area and were not aware of the Air Force base, someone could easily mistake one for the other. I have seen people cleared for the visual and line up for Ellsworth only to realize there mistake on short final and come around to land at RAP. Hope the FAA goes easy on those guys.

 

[enigma]

Hope the FAA goes easy on those guys.

dittos to that, but I doubt it.

enigma

 

[trip]

First SKYW misses the runway and know NWA misses the entire airport!! What next sheees??

 

[SLOTH]

It isn't the first and won't be the last time

Other airports where this sort of thing can happen are TUS, ELP. ELP is especially troublesome, since the airports are just about dead ringers for each other.

Sloth

 

[DorkProp]

Every one of us has the propensity to make this same error. I briefly lined up with a naval base near ORF once and quickly realized my error. It was obvious that I was looking at the wrong airport when I looked at the MFD. After that I have made it personal policy to always plug in the runway and approach fix for EVERY approach, no matter the weather conditions or familiarity with the area.

Every time I get the prima donna attitude, something happens that bumps my pride down a notch. I feel fortunate that I've never made a real bone-headed mistake (yet).

 

[a320drivr]

To fly an airplane with a FMS and a map on the ND this is inexcusable. Extremely poor airmanship. This is the problem I see with pilots relying on glass and believing everything it says. It will get them killed someday. I have seen the A320 join the wrong localizer, be 2 mlies off course on a vor approach, etc. BUY BOEING!!!!!

 

[mike1mc]

I'd love to hear the crew conversation when they were trying to find the gate...

 

[KC-10 Driver]

To fly an airplane with a FMS and a map on the ND this is inexcusable. Extremely poor airmanship. This is the problem I see with pilots relying on glass and believing everything it says. It will get them killed someday. I have seen the A320 join the wrong localizer, be 2 mlies off course on a vor approach, etc. BUY BOEING!!!!!

Yeah, this never could've happened in a Boeing airplane?!

Do you remember the Delta plane that landed at MacDill instead of Tampa? That was a Boeing -- or maybe Douglas -- definitely not Airbus.

 

[embpic]

I'd love to hear the crew conversation when they were trying to find the gate...

Think about it for a second. After clearing the runway you realize you are not at the right airport. Can you imagine what those guys were thinking. Their minds must have been racing. 'My career is over, how do I explain this to the passengers, what do I tell company' etc. It must have been one of the worst feelings of their lives. I agree that complacency was probably the major cause but I still feel bad for them. We all make mistakes from time to time but most of them go unoticed outside of the cockpit.

 

[FN FAL]

Think about it for a second. After clearing the runway you realize you are not at the right airport. Can you imagine what those guys were thinking?

Yea...where's the TOGA button on this tub of bolts?

 

[ss278]

About 30-odd years ago a 727 went into Salt Lake #2 by mistake. The field is aligned with SLC Int'l but about 10 miles south. #2 has been greatly improved since then, but at the time it was basically a 4000' rutted asphalt strip with grass growing through it and a small shack attended only during the day which served as an FBO.

The bird went in on a clear night and everyone was amazed the runway held. A small plane had landed just prior to the 727 and had activated the runway lights, which were not normally kept on. The 727 fortunatley stopped just prior to the end of the runway, taxied off and waited until help arrived.

Naturally the local media made a big deal out of it. The best part though was a couple of days later when they flew it out. United had stripped the interior to reduce weight and pumped out all the remaining fuel, save for enough to get airborne and fly the 10 miles or so to SLC. It was during the summer so about 4am they pulled it out to the end of the runway with a tug, literally backed it up to the fence, started the engines and roared on out. There was quite a crowd cheering them on, me included.

 

[MoGambo]

Continental at CRP (almost)

Same thing happened to Continental. The Crew mistakenly thought they were lined up for rwy 31 at Corpus Intl' (CRP). Actually landed at the Corpus Naval Aux Field -- Cabaniss rwy 31. Short rutted rwy lined with dilapidated hangars with lots of broken window panes. Field is used for student landing training for T-44, C-12, and T34s. Pax must of loved the view of the hangar -- "my bags are gonna be in there ?"

 

[crxpilot]

United Airlines DC 8 - Troutdale instead of PDX

A time back a United Airlines pilot mistook Troutdale for Portland International and landed a DC 8 there. United had a hard time getting that DC 8 out. They had to take out all the seats, most of the equipment, and had to remove buildings and other items off the end of the runway plus they had to remove almost all the fuel to get the weight down as far as they could.

 

[sweeper]

Yeah, this never could've happened in a Boeing airplane?!



UAL put a 757 down at the wrong airport in San Juan, Isla Grande not SJU...

It can happen in any airplane, and to any crew not paying attention.

 

[rstev1955]

Wrong Airport

I remember once when I was on the Tactical Air Command Inspector General Team we had just finished giving a base their inspection and the base flew the team back to Langley AFB in one of their large aircraft. Except...they landed at NAS Norfolk instead of Langley AFB...with the Inspector General on board.

It wasn't a great day for the crew.

 

[SMMustang]

Think about it for a second. After clearing the runway you realize you are not at the right airport. Can you imagine what those guys were thinking. Their minds must have been racing. 'My career is over, how do I explain this to the passengers, what do I tell company' etc. It must have been one of the worst feelings of their lives. I agree that complacency was probably the major cause but I still feel bad for them. We all make mistakes from time to time but most of them go unoticed outside of the cockpit.

If I was 50 I'd retire on the spot. We had a guy at NWA that landed at Brussles instead of Amsterdam if I remember correctly (or something like that-I'm sure someone knows the whole story) he retired on the spot. Company & Union wanted to bring him back, but he didn't want to deal with the fingerpointing and whatnot. I'd done the same thing.

 

[westbound]

Then there was the Continental crew that landed on a taxiway in DTW several years ago, when cleared to land on 21L sidestepped to the right and planted it on Whiskey. OOPS !!!!!!!

 

[xjcaptain]

Wasn't that USAIR in DTW a few years back?

 

[xdays]

Yeah, this never could've happened in a Boeing airplane?!

Do you remember the Delta plane that landed at MacDill instead of Tampa? That was a Boeing -- or maybe Douglas -- definitely not Airbus.

If my memory serves me correctly (??), I believe that was a 727 about 26 years ago. No glass cockpit involved here.

 

[blzr]

U.S Air landed an a320 on 26 in PHL a few years back. I bet that was one scarry ride seeing the terminal approaching that quickly.

 

[filejw]

Hey guys I can think of many ways to do this in a FMS a/c with a nice map or ND in front of you.How about you put your alt in as desination or dispatch transposes your alt and destination on the release.You would be lined up for the wrong airport in any case and i'v seen both done.

 

[xjcaptain]

Having flown into RAP many times under 121 ops, all I can say is it's a mistake that sucks, but could have been avoided. Looks like a basic loss of situational awareness. Why this happened we will have to wait and see, but I guess a probable cause could be overdependance on the toys, and a lack of basic airmanship.

 

[Habib]

Gets worse than that!

What makes things worse, as if they can, the RWY was closed and being painted, the people on the RWY ran off just before the Airbus touched down and nobody was hurt. The NWA crew must have been shooting the VOR 14 into RAP, which brings you directly over the AFB, and if you break out at say about 1000’ AGL you see the AFB straight ahead, and since the runway is almost identical, other than 3 times as wide and 2 times as long, and all the B1’s along the airport.



I wish the crew luck, as anyone that has flown towards RAP from the east can tell you, I hope I would never do that, but I see how someone could.

 

[Fly-By-Cable]

I don't understand how dependence on glass could be blamed for this mistake.


I rely on glass every day. As per company opps, we back up all visuals with published approaches and crosscheck final approach course fixes on the map display with those on jepp chart. All you got to do then, is to keep your little airplane symbol on the little magenta line and land at the end of it. It's that simple. There is no excuse for aircraft like the bus, with all that information available (not to mention 2 men crew,) to make a mistake like that.

 

[falconpilot]

The seven P's

Proper prior planing prevents piss poor performance

 

[plattsburgher]

Back in the stone age an FB-111 was recovering to KPBG runway 17 at night. The crew spotted rwy 18 at KPLB, which is 4 or 5 miles north of the base, just right of final. They landed but the municipal airport had a runway that was way too short and they went off the end. The crew walked back to the little terminal that was all shut up for the night, climbed the fence, and dropped a dime into the pay phone to call command post. The pilot identified himself as Heat 11 (or whatever the call sign was) and the controller yelled back "That's not funny, we have a plane down!" and he hung up. Sure enough, that was the last of the pocket change carried by the crew and they had to hoof it back toward the base until they could get a ride.

They always told the new tanker guys that this was why the FB-111s had a roll of dimes in the survival kit.

 

[TonyC]

That reminds me of the SR-71 that was scheduled to do a low fly-by at Offutt AFB near Omaha Nebraska.

There's a little airport in Ralston, NE that handles GA and I guess some corporate aircraft. (I may be mistaken, it may have been all GA.) The runway alignments are similar, the centerlines aren't too far separated, but the runway length, width, and surrounding facilities are quite different. As a crowd stood around at Offutt waiting for the airplane to fly by, we were surprised to spot the Blackbird climbing higher and higher as it passed overhead. By the time it got to Offutt, it was high enough that had we not been looking for it, we might not have noticed it but for the loud sound.

As it turns out, the Navigator got 'em close, the Pilot said "I've got it," and the traffic pattern at Ralston got a huge surprise.

Paul Harvey carried the story the following day: "They can count the dimples on golf balls from 60 miles up, but they can't find Headquarters Strategic Air Command!" Naturally, the SR-71 guys were the brunt of many jokes around the Strat Recon Center for quite a while.