NWA A319 Lands at Wrong Airport

[cactuspilot]

Did not read all 5 pages of post, but if you don't think this could happen to YOU, I don't want to fly with ya. You will probably be the next one.

 

[Russ]

"Since I'm not forced, I'd prefer to wait until the investigation is complete rather than offer my uninformed opinion now. In the meantime, the incident will serve me as yet another reminder to remain ever vigilant"

While the mature and proper course, its not what the 19 year olds populating the board want.

 

[GVFlyer]

I had dinner with a friend from Northwest last night. She told me that the mishap crew was flying the VOR 32 approach and had to overfly the KRAP 8700 foot runway to land on the 13,497 foot KRCA Runway 31. She said the union negotiated remedial training for the pilots and that Northwest would be fined for the incident.

 

[Laughing_Jakal]

Give up Tony C

Give up Tony....Catyaak types like a sanctimonious drunk on a soapbox rant!

If his story was a tacit admission that he has once landed at the wrong field, then I will be amused now: BWAHAHA

One More Day Of Retro Pay!

Jakal

 

[CatYaaak]

Give up Tony....Catyaak types like a sanctimonious drunk on a soapbox rant!

If his story was a tacit admission that he has once landed at the wrong field, then I will be amused now: BWAHAHA

Nothing tacit about this admission, and finally, someone who can be amused! Why not be?...I can certainly laugh at myself for a basic, bone-head mistake where nobody got hurt. So did the PIC later. Life goes on.

Sanctimonious?...perhaps you're misconstruing my opinion that we as pilots sometimes have a tendency to try and over-analyze even simple things. I assure you, sanctimonious is not my attitude. In fact it's the opposite. If you knew me, you'd know that I accept (and expect) good-natured ribbing about my blatant screw-ups, and certainly don't regard it as personal attack let alone extrapolate that the person dishing it out thinks themselves to be holier-than-thou. Now THAT would indeed be sanctimonious, because harmless screw-ups are always been fodder for this...it goes with the territory. Now if some of the tighter-a$$ed elements in the airline world consider themselves above it, like seems to be the case here, I hate to break it to you, but they're really no different in this regard from anyone else they share the sky with, and just like screwing up, not immune.

I thought in this business it was an unspoken axiom that nobody thinks themselves "immune" (that attitude usually corrects itself via self-induced fright or an early grave). An element of doing a grown-up thing like flying airplanes for a living is the ablility to suck it up, take responsibility, and sometimes admit to yourself that "no matter what was going on at the time, I screwed up, and I knew better". Frankly, if someone were analyzing the human factors and distractions in my own incident to the point it was sounding like an excuse or placing blame somewhere else, I'd be embarrassed.

It's not like what we do..every little task..is rocket surgery, but some pretend it's so when it's convenient to the ego or peer group. After all, these guys weren't trying to land the LEM in the barely-charted Sea of Tranquility with 12 seconds of fuel left, and if there was some REAL mitigating circumstance we would have heard about it. Nobody's picking through wreckage piecing together a giant puzzle in the laborious task of trying to reconstruct an accident. Nobody's picking on the crew as individuals, or equating what happened with something like going to work drunk. It's not an attack on their integrity or skill. And although well-justified in most cases, it's the finger-wagging, "don't-rush-to-judgement-you-weren't-there" wagon-circling that I think has been mis-applied to this particular incident that I find extremely amusing. Reminds me of George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove admonishing President Mufflie to "withold judgement on a thing like that until all the facts are in" regarding Gen. Ripper's ordering a nuclear first-strike on his own.

I'm truly glad those guys didn't lose their jobs. But when they're going through the probably-not-necessary remedial training (no doubt they knew 3 seconds after realizing their mistake where they went wrong and how it could have been prevented) are you going to tell me the instructor won't quietly give them a few good-natured digs? So lighten up, and save the furrowed brows for complex, tragic events..not something like this. You know, there does come a point where the "voice of prudence" is merely a self-aggrandizing facade for either denial or the act of abrogating responsiblity, and it's not a good path to go down. If you don't believe that it can go too far, read the ALPA version of what "factors" caused a fatal accident up in Hibbing, MN about 10 years ago with regards to the PIC. You'll see what I mean.

 

[Laughing_Jakal]

Like I said!

Catyaak....like I said......you are on a soapbox rant...save the crusade for someone who will read past your first paragraph.

 

[Gumby]

Enough is Enough

You guys need to kiss and make up..

Get a room or something..

Yea MLB, I'll contribute my share for the room for these two kids....I think we've beaten this horse more then enough!!!

Hey btw...Howz' your LUV life?

 

[CatYaaak]

Catyaak....like I said......you are on a soapbox rant...save the crusade for someone who will read past your first paragraph.

Not a rant, I'm hijacking this thread from you airline guys...can't you see that? Now, try to fly me to Rapid City.

 

[320AV8R]

I had dinner with a friend from Northwest last night. She told me that the mishap crew was flying the VOR 32 approach and had to overfly the KRAP 8700 foot runway to land on the 13,497 foot KRCA Runway 31. She said the union negotiated remedial training for the pilots and that Northwest would be fined for the incident.

Your information is incorrect. They flew the 16 DME arc and the final approach was to runway 14. This would result in overflying the Ellsworth runway prior to arriving at the RAP runway.

 

[TonyC]

Give up Tony....Catyaak types like a sanctimonious drunk on a soapbox rant!

If his story was a tacit admission that he has once landed at the wrong field, then I will be amused now: BWAHAHA

One More Day Of Retro Pay!

Jakal

I suppose it was a good thing that I was bound for Amsterdam when he started talking about my wife. He keeps confusing me about what he thinks is professional vs. unprofessional. Oh, well.

Like you said...


Today is yet One More Day of Retro Pay!