Boeing Dreamlifter landed at the wrong airport

[ipilot54]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/travel/ka ... g-airport/

[PilotDAR]

Well, three things are good about this:

Obviously they hand flew the approach well,

They got their speeds, and short field approach technique right,

And, they did not hit the breakwall! (Oh, wait, that was a different airport...)

Better to do a really good landing at the wrong airport, than a really bad one at the right airport!

[ReserveTank]

This is why you should always load the approach for your intended runway...

[GRK]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't even in the data base…these two boys have a lot of 'splainin to do!

[crazyaviator]

Better to do a really good landing at the wrong airport, than a really bad one at the right airport!

Priceless!!

[bizjets101]

13:46 est - waiting for departure - live stream ;

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dreamlift ... ium=social

better view here;

http://www.airlinereporter.com/2013/11/ ... mall/#live

[Rudy]

13:46 est - waiting for departure - live stream ;

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dreamlift ... ium=social

better view here;

http://www.airlinereporter.com/2013/11/ ... mall/#live

So they haven't unloaded any cargo?

[Rudy]

Well that was exciting. They made it.

[Airtids]

Seeing as how that machine's primary job is shuttling "bits" made in Wichita up to Seattle/Everett, my guess is they were pretty light going in, maybe even empty. Which, of course, begs the question even more of how this could happen...

[P_smith]

by the sounds of the LIVE ATC recording, it seems as though they were on the RNAV approach but the RNAV was down the the time being, thus leaving them to a VFR night landing.

[lownslow]

by the sounds of the LIVE ATC recording, it seems as though they were on the RNAV approach but the RNAV was down the the time being, thus leaving them to a VFR night landing.

"RNAV was down," meaning what, exactly? Was the system in the aircraft unserviceable at the time, was the approach NOTAM'ed unusable that night or was there some sort of satellite signal jamming going on?

LnS.

[rigpiggy]

hey if AC can land or approach wrong airport anybody can
http://theairlinewebsite.com/topic/1201 ... wnavernon/
can't find the earlier one where they missed seatac, and went to mcchord?

It can happen. Several Continental Express pilots over the years have landed at Southland Field, mistaking it for Lake Charles Regional (LCH) at night, and I thought they were awfully careless. My attitude changed when,a few months ago, I almost landed at LaPorte Airport in Houston rather than Ellington Field, in daylight. ATC gave me vectors that took me off the usual approach path to EFD, and then told me to look for other traffic that was on the approach to Ellington. The distraction of watching for other traffic to follow, and then suddenly seeing a runway appear where I expected it to be, led me to call the airport in sight and to be cleared for a visual approach. Fortunately a vigilant controller at Ellington noticed that I appeared to be descending toward LaPorte, not Ellington. I thanked her profusely after landing for saving me from an embarrassing mistake. Her response was "Hey, airline pilots have made the same mistake."

[Instructor_Mike]

"RNAV was down," meaning what, exactly? Was the system in the aircraft unserviceable at the time, was the approach NOTAM'ed unusable that night or was there some sort of satellite signal jamming going on?

LnS.

The pilots forgot their tinfoil hats and fell victim to the alien astronauts signals that mixed with the chem trails they were emiting.

Now excuse me while I double layer.

[Doc]

Better to do a really good landing at the wrong airport, than a really bad one at the right airport!

Priceless!!

Spilt my coffee reading that one!

[Colonel Sanders]

I'm probably not as hot a stick as the four-bars
but what I do is use the OBS mode of the GPS
to make a fake localizer to the unfamiliar runway/airport.

Takes a few seconds.

[Doc]

I'm probably not as hot a stick as the four-bars
but what I do is use the OBS mode of the GPS
to make a fake localizer to the unfamiliar runway/airport.

Takes a few seconds.

I do that at night.....even doing circuits.

[Boratt]

I'm probably not as hot a stick as the four-bars
but what I do is use the OBS mode of the GPS
to make a fake localizer to the unfamiliar runway/airport.

Takes a few seconds.

I know what you mean. It's called a mexican ILS.

[Doc]

I'm probably not as hot a stick as the four-bars
but what I do is use the OBS mode of the GPS
to make a fake localizer to the unfamiliar runway/airport.

Takes a few seconds.

I know what you mean. It's called a mexican ILS.

And, it's WAY more accurate than ANY NDB approach I've ever seen.....
Add 500-700 feet to the field elevation, and you're "in Mexico"....not that I would ever condone such behaviour......now back to our regularly scheduled program.

[Colonel Sanders]

Most GPS's will have a "VNAV" mode that even
automatically pops up and starts telling you when
to descend. Combined with the runway track on
OBS, I guess that's your "Pedro's South Of The Border"
ILS



PS I remember when I started going to California,
a very long time ago.

Up until then, I thought mexican food was terrible.

You know, Taco Bell. But then a friend of mine took
me out for lunch to this diner/dive/drive-in kinda
place. I felt like asking the people here, "Are you
real Mexicans?!", because I had never seen
one before.

My buddy told me to order the "Drunken Chicken"
burrito which blew my mind. Some kind of booze,
some chocolate and chicken, on fresh rice and an
even fresher wrap. I was in heaven. I had no idea
that Mexican food could be so tasty. Sheltered
childhood.

[pelmet]

Distance back is just as important as the fake localizer. I remember being based out of a foreign airport for a while which had 3 other airports fairly close two of them quite close with the same or almost the same runway bearing. A perfect setup for a wrong landing. One of the airports had a shorter runway but as we can see with that C-17 in Tampa, that doesn't seem to make a difference sometimes.

For a modern aircraft like this 747, it does seem a bit baffling when a published approach would likely be available in the aircraft database for each runway. Have to read up on it on PPrune.

[Big Pistons Forever]

A United flight landed at the wrong airport many years ago. After coming to a panic stop on the runway the crew figured out where they were and called the tower to announce their arrival. The tower replied with "what are your intentions", the reply " Well I have always wanted to try chicken farming"

[GyvAir]

^