NWA Fires 2 pilots in landing mistake...

[aeronautic1]

D'oh!

Wouldn't it have been better to move the B-1Bs from the base to the other "stealth" airport instead of firing the pilots? End of confusion.

 

[100LL... Again!]

They did get what they pay for, live passengers. They LANDED on the wrong piece of pavement. Doing so holds much less potential for disaster than managements penchant for red-eye scheduling etc. Besides, they could have crashed on the correct piece of pavement, would you fire them then?

I think it is fair for the company to expect both. Live pax, right runway.




Using that logic, why not just fire all of the pilots, those suckers might screw up and embarrass us.

No, just the ones that screw up bigtime.



These guys missed something. But did they throw normal safe operating procedures out of the window? Did the ignore repeated signs of impending disaster? Did they fail to see repeated teletale signs that they were about to make an error?

They might have. Why is the runway already in sight? Dunno. Let's land.


I would agree with the firing if these guys had pulled a SWA/Burbank deal. Those SWA guys ignored: SOP, stabilized approach/mandatory GA guidance, and common sense. Their firing was defensible. These guys were apparently on a non-precision final approach course and saw a runway where they expected a runway to be, so they made a successful landing. Slap their hand and return them to the ranks of your productive employees.

Absolutely. I agree that termination is severe.

Maybe a temporary downgrade for the CA. Suspension for a period of time, to give some time to reflect on the dangers of complacency.

 

[FoxHunter]

We can talk about all the reasons it happened, but, if you are a commercial airline captain and you land at the wrong airport, you will be the rare bird to still have a job, that simple.

Enough people have done this in the past as you have to know where the airports are that look alike and are nearby and take the precautions to see you do not make this mistake.

Jeez, I know of one guy that did that and he became a check airman, and another that became VP Flight OPS.

 

[vetteracer]

Living in SD I have been to RAP many many times. The AF base could be an easy mistake on a crappy day, but then you would be hard fixed on an approach course. Many of the Bombers are outside, and the place resembles a GA airport in no way.

Termination is harsh. Somebody’s head had to roll, and I guess it was there’s.

I am sure that the AF personnel had some explaining to do as well. After all, Ellsworth AF base operates App and Dep for both airports.

I feel for these guys as I have heard many many times over the radio,

Ellsworth APP.

("Ahh, looks like your headed for the Air Base, suggest a 30 degree turn for RAP").

Aircraft

(Ohhh, I see it know, thanks, ).

The stars aligned just right, the tower cap went to fill his coffee cup at the right moment, the pilots were complacent, App and Dep handed them off and then turned to watch the game on TV.

Who knows?? In any event, it happened and 2 pilots lost their jobs because of it. It should be a hard lesson that we can all learn from in some way shape or form.

Mark