Ever get off at the wrong exit?

[Major Nikon]

[font color="black" size="5" face="face"]Delta Plane Mistakenly Lands at South Dakota Air Force Base[/font]

More than 100 Delta passengers on board a flight bound for Rapid City, South Dakota got an unexpected surprise Thursday night when their plane mistakenly landed at an Air Force Base, about five miles north of the aircraft's intended target.

Ellsworth Air Force Base confirmed in a statement to ABC that while it was an unauthorized landing, "Base officials followed the proper procedures to address the situation and ensure the safety of our Airmen, their families and the passengers."

Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.

"The pilots of the Airbus A320 had been cleared to land at Rapid City Regional Airport. The aircraft instead touched down at Ellsworth Air Force Base, shortly before 7:45 p.m. local time," the FAA released in a statement to ABC News.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/delta-plane-mistakenly-lands-south-dakota-air-force/story?id=40444218

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Same thing happened 10 years ago -

same airports (by Northwest Airlines, now merged into Delta). What I can't figure out is how you can do that with an A320, which is supposed to take you to whatever airport was programmed into the FMS. There's a moving map display and everything.

[Major Nikon]

2. Easy

Spot the wrong airport, call it in sight, and ATC clears you for the visual. At that point the FMS doesn't matter because you're only looking out the window.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Except that isn't what the airline's procedures allow.

It's fine for GA but part 121 carriers have specific requirements for approaches, including visual ones. On the Airbus they don't normally hand-fly approaches, even in VMC. The FMS commands the approach, either way. The only time you'd disconnect the autopilot and hand-fly is if you unexpectedly had to fly an approach that hadn't been programmed into the FMS because an instrument approach backup is required for visual approaches. I'm sure this crew will be doing the rug dance in the chief pilot's office because this wouldn't have happened if they'd been following the airline's established procedures.

[Major Nikon]

7. If you look at the track on flightaware, it definitely doesn't appear to be an autopilot approach

I suspect their days of flying part 121 are over.

I'm sure the FAA is also going to have a conversation with them about their future in aviation as well.

[Laffy Kat]

3. Well that's embarrassing. nt

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Many years ago Mohawk Airlines did this sort of thing on a regular basis...

Being a small regional carrier in the old days meant you got away with a lot of stuff, and Mohawk regularly found its planes in Canada when they should have been in Buffalo.

[Fla Dem]

6. Birds eye view of airports.

Last edited Sun Jul 10, 2016, 11:37 AM - Edit history (1)

According to Boswell, the two runways are located 5 miles from each other and are oriented in roughly the same direction. However, the runway at Ellsworth is 13,500 feet long and 300 feet wide and marked at the threshold with a large "13" number, while the runway at Rapid City Regional Airport is only 8,701 feet long and only 150 feet wide and marked with a large "14."

Rapid City Regional Airport is in the lower right hand corner.

[malthaussen]

9. Yep, as pointed out upthread...

... easy to mix up visually, but the pilot of the Airbus had no business flying visual.

-- Mal

[malthaussen]

8. "Hey, I was only going to go to Buckhead for a beer...

... and the next thing I knew, I was on I-95 headed for Florida!" (Jimmy Buffett schtick)

-- Mal