U.S. C-17 lands at small civilian airport by accident

[Rudy]

Landing Video: http://yfrog.com/mk7ekz

They were inbound to MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL from Southwest Asia. They landed at Peter O. Knight airport by mistake. MacDill's runway is 11,421x151' while the one they touched down on is 3,580x100'. Both are aligned in the same direction.

It's amazing to see such a big airplane land that short. Apparently they get it stopped with 10 feet to spare.


Here's an article and the takeoff video after they unloaded it: http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/jul/ ... ar-437276/

[1000 HP]

Nice. I wonder if he regretted not overshooting at any point

[126.7_STFU]

That captain with his pretty aviators sure as hell knew what was going on! I'm surprised they didn't authorize him to depart with it.

I just love the media when it comes to this industry. The plane may not get out of the airport? So they just swap crews, jump in, and go balls to the wall thinking the air force is about to write off a 200 million dollar airplane in a "LETS JUST SEE WHAT HAPPENS" decision making process.

[pdw]

By the time it was unloaded the landing crew would have been into overtime as far as 'time on duty' is concerned.

[grimey]

Peter O. Knight Airport is temporarily closed as the Air Force works to move the plane, Tampa International spokeswoman Janet Zink said. Neither the C-17 nor the airfield was damaged, airport and Air Force officials said.

That was actually what I was wondering about, whether a tiny little GA strip would hold up to a large aircraft like the C-17. But I guess considering what it's designed to get in and out of I shouldn't be.

Nice to see it happens in reverse once in a while, after all the stories I've seen of people landing at AFBs by mistake.

It's amazing to see such a big airplane land that short. Apparently they get it stopped with 10 feet to spare.

The runway had a ~250' extention completed 4 years ago. Good thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_O._Knight_Airport

[FlyGy]

I wonder how much gravel they sprayed all over those tiny little planes with those great big jet engines.

[Colonel Sanders]

This happens all the time. AC has landed on the taxiway at SeaTac and tried to land at the wrong airport in BC a couple years back.

[Donald]

Nice to see it happens in reverse once in a while, after all the stories I've seen of people landing at AFBs by mistake.

The difference being, since it was US military, they will all get commendations and medals for their brave actions in the face of danger.

[Siddley Hawker]

A major European carrier once landed on 28 in Cartierville instead of 24L in Dorval. For awhile around Dorval they were known as Been Over At Cartierville. An Eastern DC-9 did the same thing a few years later. The runway was in the process of being torn up, but that didn't stop the guy from turning around, taxiing back and balsting off over to Dorval. I heard the Captain was fired for that one.

[Colonel Sanders]

Heck, a few years back a PPL landed on 33 at Pearson
instead of Brampton. When it was closed for construction.

Happens all the time.

[Canoehead]

Heck, a few years back a PPL landed on 33 at Pearson
instead of Brampton. When it was closed for construction.

Happens all the time.

"Wrong-way Faye" wasn't it?

I heard an AC DC-9 almost landed at Sanderson field in the Sault many years ago.

[Colonel Sanders]

"Wrong-way Faye" wasn't it?

Yup. I knew her a little bit. She bought a used-up
C150 from a flying school. With 80/87 gone, I
suggested she consider saving some money and
reduce the lead by running some mogas - those
engines are famous for sticking valves.

She told me that I didn't know what I was talking
about, and proceeded to (try to) fly to OSH. Across
Lake Michigan, directly. Before she got there, guess
what happened? Yup, an exhaust valve started to
stick (lead fouling - remember, I don't know what
I'm talking about) and she did a precautionary landing
on a live artillery range. I am not making this up.

Decided to turn around and come back to Ottawa,
but never learned to use the nav radios in the panel.
Hazy day in Toronto. With the help of some coaching
from the Brampton UNICOM, she saw a big "33" and
landed there. At Pearson. Never saw all the construction
workers and equipment, who scattered when she
landed.

TC loved her. She became a celebrity in Eastern Ontario,
appeared on all the talk shows.

[Beefitarian]

Hedly what are you talking about?

[FastFlyBy]

"won't confirm whether it was pilot error or mechanical error"

I hate it when mechanical components make the wrong decision.

[sanjet]

I know in the end the pilot is responsible but at what point did atc in contact with these guys notice he's off track?

[kamikaze]

disclaimer: Small aircraft private pilot here ...

How do these things happen though?

I mean, did he actually get a cleared to land from the AFB tower? Would he have landed without a clearance?

The pilot can't tell a 3000' runway from an 11000' runway, really? I can see that being the case because of the nose up attitude on final maybe ... you put the nose down, think "oh shit", but if he's got weight on, maybe he decides he has a batter shot at stopping than trying to do a touch n go ... ?

Or maybe vectors from ATC got him there somehow, because the controller got confused? Still, at some point you end up talking to tower, who would kind of notice he's not seeing you out the window! And you know the C-17 has some pretty nice navigation equipment I'm sure ... even if ATC is confused, the crew should notice.

Just hard to imagine the large number of things that have to go wrong going wrong all at the same time for this to happen ...

[Colonel Sanders]

How do these things happen

Easy. A visual approach with lack of situational
awareness - eg no one was watching the GPS
moving map. This kind of mistake is especially
likely to occur at night, with reduced visual cues
and crew fatigue.

If they were flying vectors to the ILS to 200 and
a half, with their heads inside the cockpit, it simply
could not have happened.

Back in 1991, a Herc flying into Alert had a bad
night, doing - guess what - a visual approach.

When you get some more experience, you will
see how easy it is to make this kind of mistake.

If you ever get your instrument rating, treat the
night circling approach - to an unfamiliar airport -
with great respect. Air Canada isn't even allowed
to attempt them.

[old_man]

Lets all look on the bright side. They put it down at the beginning of the runway and got it stopped in time. Porter take note?

[sidestick stirrer]

And a DC-8 landing at the wrong airport in South Vietnam.
Had to take a couple of hundred passenger seats out to make it light enough to get off the runway.
Video avail on YouTube, the flight attendants are standing there watching the skeleton crew depart...

[Rudy]

[Colonel Sanders]

"at 2 o'clock in the morning, 3 miles away"

Night time. Tired crew. Fooled by the visuals.
Sound familiar?

How do these things happen

If you don't think this could ever happen to you,
well, you don't get out much.

Remember the Comair accident at LEX a couple
years back? Took off on the wrong runway?
Destroyed the aircraft, many people dead.

About 10 years ago, I think it was a 747 that took
off on the wrong runway in horrible weather somewhere
in the Orient. Destroyed the aircraft, many people
dead. Edit - found it:

the crew attempted takeoff on runway 05R, which had been closed for repairs, instead of the assigned runway 05L (which runs parallel to 05R). The captain, Foong Chee Kong, correctly heard that he needed to take off at 05L, but he turned 215 metres (705 ft) too soon and lined up with 05R.

Due to poor visibility in the heavy rain, the flight crew did not see that construction equipment, including two excavators, two vibrating rollers, one small bulldozer, and one air compressor, had been parked on runway 05R. In addition, the runway contained concrete jersey barriers and pits. About 41 seconds later, the aircraft collided with the machinery and broke into pieces. The fuselage was torn in two, and the engines and landing gear separated. A crane tore the left wing from the aircraft, forcing the jet back on to the ground. The nose struck a scoop loader. A large fire followed, destroying the forward section of the fuselage and the wings. 79 of 159 passengers and 4 of 20 crew members died in the accident.

Hint: not all of these pilots are terribly stupid compared to you.

[DanJ]

disclaimer: Small aircraft private pilot here ...

How do these things happen though?

I mean, did he actually get a cleared to land from the AFB tower? Would he have landed without a clearance?

The pilot can't tell a 3000' runway from an 11000' runway, really? I can see that being the case because of the nose up attitude on final maybe ... you put the nose down, think "oh shit", but if he's got weight on, maybe he decides he has a batter shot at stopping than trying to do a touch n go ... ?

Or maybe vectors from ATC got him there somehow, because the controller got confused? Still, at some point you end up talking to tower, who would kind of notice he's not seeing you out the window! And you know the C-17 has some pretty nice navigation equipment I'm sure ... even if ATC is confused, the crew should notice.

Just hard to imagine the large number of things that have to go wrong going wrong all at the same time for this to happen ...

I'd suggest firing up google maps and look at the 2 airports, how alike the surroundings look (both are on spits of land jutting out into the bay), the fact that the C-17 pilot meant to land on runway 22 at MacDill and actually landed on 22 at Davis Island. The 2 runways are only 5 miles apart and as the one pilot in the video said, they are almost in a continuous line. His instruments would have practically taken him to the civilian airport on the way into McDill. In looking at the video, it's not hard to imagine he was making a visual approach. I wonder if, being early afternoon and on a southwesterly heading, if some sun in his face might have contributed to the mistaken identity?

I wonder if our heavy drivers here can add to what amount of time a jet like this would need to go from landing mode to go around? I wouldn't be at all surprised the pilot had that "oh, shit" moment when he realized at some point before touchdown he was obviously at the wrong airport, but also knew there was no time to actually not land, or enough time to figure out if there was enough room to touch and go.

[kamikaze]

From a purely visual perspective, I get how the confusion might occur, definitely, no argument there ... in an otherwise utterly uncontrolled environment.

I'm assuming the AFB has at least a tower. They're in Tampa, which has an international airport, they probably crossed some class C/D airspace at the very least ...

But they're on the tower freq for the base ... they're not noticing strange going on here? no airplane in sight! (Looks like a beautiful day too ...)

What about a "cleared to land"? Something odd should've come up when it was that time, no? Hey I need to clear you to land but ... where are you? Or the pilot might've been itching for his clearance ... did he get it?

So even I accept pilot error on a strictly visual operation, I'd still like to know how the ATC system ALSO failed to notice this ...

Or is there such a thing as an uncontrolled AFB? Maybe he dropped under the terminal zone, and was freed from ATC completely because the AFB is uncontrolled, and that's what happened ... I guess I just can't imagine a defense installation in the US without at least a tower.

I wonder if it's common for the small a/c to get confused and land on the base?

[Colonel Sanders]

I'd still like to know how the ATC system ALSO failed to notice this

It's not their job. See the Comair takeoff on the
wrong runway at LEX for a similar discussion on
this topic.

ATC doesn't fly the airplane. The pilot flies the airplane.

[DanJ]

I wonder if it's common for the small a/c to get confused and land on the base?

When I was googling about this story last night, I came across a message board where it was suggested it happens with some regularity (no actual numbers given), and the guy said it was nice to see the big boys mess up like the little guys always do.