OOOPPPPS....wrong airport

[Garry Russell]

A list of such events

http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html


Garry

[petermcleland]

Somewhere around 1948 a chap named Thorne landed his Tiger Moth at Heathrow

[Chris558]

They must be using sat-navs!

[simondix]

In the late sixties I lived on the approach to Heathrow 23L and Northolt. Used to see some interesting things change their minds about which AIrfield they were heading for.

[Kevin Farnell]

B52 low pass at Blackbushe



That must have put the wind up anyone in the tower.

Kevin

[ianhind]

The example given in the text of that website "an Air Canada A319, which on August 23, 2003 aborted an approach to Vernon instead of Kelowna, British Columbia" is probably the equivalent of trying to land at Elstree instead of Luton.

I've been a passenger on the Vancouver/Kelowna flight quite a few times in the days of Canadian Pacific 737-200s. This was en route to Vernon to see the first Mrs H (for reasons best forgotten). Direct flights to/from Vernon would have saved a car journey down the Okanagan Valley!

[emfrat]

The best navigational error I know of did not involve aviation at all - quite the opposite in fact.
It was reported on the Beeb website about five years back. The headline read:
"Yorkshire cavers rescued in S-E France" :o
Mustabin a points failure at Peterborough, or summat.

[speedbird591]

I remember in the 70s seeing a JAL DC-8 that had landed at a short runway at Juhu, mistaking it for nearby Bombay on the same heading. Our hotel was at Juhu Beach and we had to drive past the perimeter to get there. The DC-8 was sitting on it's nose which had pushed through the fence and was causing pedestrians to walk in the road to get round it. It had only happened a few hours earlier but the first thing they'd done was to paint out the logo and titles with black paint. As if nobody knew what airline it was!

I believe there was also a VC10 that landed at Sharjah instead of Dubai (or Abu Dhabi?). And there was also a popular urban myth about another a/c in the 60s that landed somewhere in the Game Park instead of Nairobi. Legend has it that when the Captain reported the incident to ATC, he was asked "What are your intentions?", to which he replied, "I thought the wife and I might open a B & B in Cornwall." Probably untrue but that's no reason to spoil a good story!

Ian

EDIT: Just remembered another incident in the 70s that shows how easily it can be done. I was steward on a 707 freighter flying to Bangkok via Dacca,Bangladesh. There were no landing aids so it was a visual approach. Unfortunately it was monsoon season and the Ganges Delta was flooded and the landscape consisted of hundreds of islands of vegetation surrounded by floodwaters. The airport was on one of these islands. We had a fairly good idea of where it should be and flying the downwind leg, the F/O, E/O and myself were straining our necks out of the starboard window to try and spot it. At the last moment the F/O shouted "There it is!" just about to disappear under the starboard wing. So they didn't lose sight of it again, the Captain did a very tight descending turn onto the approach and had barely levelled by the time we'd got to the threshold. He banged it down hard, as you do with 707s, and we found ourselves thundering along an uphill stretch of tarmac with no idea of what was over the crest of the hill. There were no buildings - just jungle all around. The Captain was just going for the reversers when the F/O said "Shit! This isn't Dacca!". The captain froze with hand over the throttles and looked at him. "Yes or No?" he yelled. Just as the F/O opened his mouth we crested the hill and saw a grubby little one-story building with the welcoming words DACCA INTERNATIONAL written on the front and then all hell let loose as he stood on everything to get us stopped in time. I can't remember the exact words used by the Captain but they started off with "Don't you EVER f****ing ....."

We were soon laughing because they had us taxi back down the runway over the hill to the "cargo" stand. A bare patch of tarmac with nothing in sight except jungle. No buildings, no steps or anything you'd associate with an airport. We sat there for 15 mins with me hanging out of the door relaying back what I could see. Anything happening, Ian? Not yet Captain! Oh! Yes, here comes somebody. Are there steps? Er, no. He's on a bicycle. He rode up to the a/c, put his bike on the stand, saluted and shouted up that somebody would come very soon, sah! and then rode off again leaving us marooned for another 15 mins until a convoy of vehicles lumbered over the hill to relieve us of our pallets.

[sketchy74]

B52 low pass at Blackbushe



That must have put the wind up anyone in the tower.

Kevin

Yea Kevin! That was my favourite story of airport mis-identification!

Considering the Mission Task of that aircraft is to fly to another continent bomb it and return it does make you worry!!!