Dreamlifter Aircraft Lands at the Wrong Airport | Pilot Fails to Land at McConnell Air Force Base
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 มิ.ย. 2022
- A Boeing 747 Dreamlifter aircraft lands at the wrong airport after being set up on final approach for McConnell Air Force Base.
- บันเทิง
![The Wall Song ร้องข้ามกำแพง | EP.202 | ตั้ม วราวุธ / เบสท์ คำสิงห์ | 18 ก.ค. 67 [1/5]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cwIoA7XHqnE/mqdefault.jpg)
![[TH] 2024 PMWC x EWC Group Stage Day 2 | PUBG MOBILE WORLD CUP x ESPORTS WORLD CUP](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vwIQyCmNIBU/mqdefault.jpg)
![[TH] VCT Pacific Stage 2 - Playoffs Lower Bracket Final // PRX vs DRX](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5HwO1bQyAx4/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm a former airline pilot and flight instructor: I've flown out of Wichita multiple times over the years, and note that this kind of mistake is not entirely unheard-of, and this pilot probably lost his license for a while. I'm amazed that he didn't seem to have any VFR charts or info aboard, because He couldn't even locate Jabara's unicom freq. As you mentioned, the airports north of IAB share similar runway directions and both Jabara and Beech field have fairly long runways--at least by general aviation standards, so confusion can occur. Still, those runways should easily accommodate a Dreamlifter and the B 747-400 it is based on. The heaviest thing a jet carries is its own fuel, so offload a few thousand lbs of JP 4 and the Dreamlifter should be able to use little as 4,000' of runway, even less with headwind. By the way, the reason we pilots land and take off into the wind is about performance, stability is not a major concern. Headwinds provide shorter landing and takeoff distances, and reduced aircraft groundspeeds. That provides bigger safety margins while reducing wear and tear on the aircraft.
Since the Dreamlifter was able to take off from Jabara, after their landing mistake back in 2013, we can see how much performance margin is built into airline jet ops. Just a year later, a Southwest 737 mistook Taney County MO's 3400' runway for Chicago Midway, 8 miles farther and landed safety using max braking. (A 737 would normally use 5,000' of runway to land and stop.)
Two years ago, an Air Force C-17 headed for Mac Dill near Tampa, landed instead nearby at Peter O. Knight airport, which has only 3585' of runway. Since you're ex-mil, you probably already know that in a conflict zone, a C-17 can use much shorter runways than advertised. I watched the video of their repositioning takeoff from Knight field and estimated they used just over 2,000' of runway to take off and clear obstacles.
I am amazed at the field performance of modern narrow body airliners, for instance, I've seem Embraer E-170s land at my home airport, KSBP, and use less runway than I do in my Mooney M20K, so I talked with a young fellow flying one and asked him about the aircraft. He said that lightly loaded, an E-170 can roll out in less than 900', a feat I might not be able to duplicate in my Mooney. Admittedly, Mooney brakes are notoriously underpowered and Moonies don't have reverse thrust capability.
Fun vid, keep up the good work. Are you getting back into ATC, civilian? I've been flying, writing and instructing for over 50 years, so if you ever want any aviation theory or background info, yell at me @ veribuildcorp@gmail.com
Right on. If ur flying an instrument approach, there is no excuse for a mistake like that.
I was on the Davis island doing inspection by the airport when the C-17 landed at Peter O Knight I call the fire dept thinking there a Big emergency for that plane to land when MC only a few miles away or at TPA they ask me twice and I said there’s C17 sitting on the runway with brakes a smoking but I don’t see anything else and no fire 🔥 I wish thinking back on I did no stop my dash cam from overwrite the video crew did mess up but made it work max braking and engine in full screaming backup mode dust dirt grass flying everywhere
@@fastone942 sentence structure LOL
He probably couldn’t locate Jabara’s unicom frequency because ATC had terminal mumbles and couldn’t even say “Jabara” clearly enough to be understood.
“Where are we?”
“Jmmmmm”
Sometimes the comment section is better than the video thanks for posting your info.
Never abandon your instruments, even if cleared for a visual. Remember, a visual approach, as opposed to a VFR pattern, is an IFR procedure. Air Canada made that mistake a few years back and they nearly landed on a row of airplanes in queue on a taxiway.
Always set up an instrument approach, if available, even if flying a visual approach. When I’m cleared for the visual for runway 28C at ORD, for example, I am still going to fly it just like an ILS and utilize ILS guidance. To not do so in a jet aircraft is to set yourself up for potentially catastrophic failure.
"Verify you're on the ground at Beech Airport?" "We think so."
At this point, they likely weren't too sure about a lot of things anymore.
Mann 😘
Long ago but the same happend here, in Sweden. A pilot on final to rwy 19 thought he saw "the runway" but it was "a runway" some miles too early for him. However he landed but didn't see any terminal for the passengers... He had landed on a military airbase..
Both runways were some 1900 - 2000 meters long so taking off was no problem.
Another Swede here. I think you're thinking of the Linjeflyg "disorientation" of 1987. It was actually the other way around. The intended destination was the combined civilian/military airport/base Kallinge (air force wing F-17) in Ronneby. By mistake, they landed the Fokker F-28 at the since years closed small airport in Emmaboda, c:a 40 km from Kallinge. There was a terminal building with a two stories high (or low...) control tower but much smaller than the one at Kallinge.
(My slippery road driving practice (required when taking a driver's licence in Sweden) was done a few tears later on the same runway in Emmaboda.)
@@skunkjobb No. Likely significantly earlier than that. The airports were Saeve and Torslanda. The pilot landed on Saeve....... What plane? Can't tell but it was an airliner.
Later one passenger related this story for his friend, when flying. Then another passenger on the plane turns around telling: "It was me who did it".....
This sounds like an incident that happened several years ago. The Dreamlifter couldn’t back taxi because of the narrow taxiways and the weight. They had to lighten the aircraft as much as possible, tow it to the departure end with only enough fuel to get in the air to McConnell, and really power up while holding their brakes to ensure enough thrust for departure. It took a few days to coordinate everything and there were people surrounding the airport to see this departure. Even the state police had to manage traffic on the adjacent highway because of all of the onlookers. Boeing was not thrilled about this and had to get engineers involved along with another Dreamlifter crew.
It's the same incident.
Its Atlas Air, the contractor that operates the Dream lifter for Boeing. Under the antitrust agreement back in the 1920s Boeing cannot operate an airline. The old Boeing Air Transport became United Airlines.
@@delano62 Dela 😊
Didn't they have to get 2 specialty pilots from New York? I lived in Hutchinson which is just to the northwest of Wichita. It wa rather interesting
@@johntrussell7808 🙄😑
Yes, the Dreamlifter did cause significant damage to the concrete runway pavement at Jabara airport. I seem to recall that the airport authority billed Atlas Air and its insurance company almost $500,000 to make the repairs.
I'm wondering if the 747 was able to take off on the shorter runway, and one with a much lower runway weight capacity? I have visions of the gear crashing through the concrete on the way down the runway.
Local news coverage the following day: th-cam.com/video/lOvB8ZleHCk/w-d-xo.html
@@KansaSCaymanS Not having a cat in the fight...I'm a lousy FSX pilot and have landed at the wrong airport before, scanning down the comments for info, I still appreciate your posting of the wrapup video. Just tied up the whole thing with a bow. Thanks.
So that was a while back and since no one last that long at Atlas, who are they flying for now? The Professional Pilots at Delta?
@@KansaSCaymanS Thank you for posting that. Interesting video. HUGE aircraft.
The craziest thing is that they still had it on radar while it was landed.
Perhaps they hadn't set their transponder to STBY.
This video brought back memories. I was a dispatcher for the Kansas Highway Patrol, covering the Wichita area the night that this happened. You wouldn't believe some of the ideas that were floated by people to get the aircraft moved from Jabara to McConnell. The pilots flying were relieved and a new crew was brought in. They had to off-load almost all of their fuel load, keeping only enough to make the trip to McConnell. They positioned the aircraft with its main gear just at the back edge of the runway and then make a short-field takeoff.
From my memory, the flight was at night, leading to some of the confusion. However, the pilots should have double and triple checked their approach briefing. Having three airports in the direct vicinity of the destination can, as we see, lead to massive confusion and a potential bad ending.
Almost all true Joseph Carney. We did not offload the aircraft of fuel or cargo. We turned the aircraft around as the weather was about to change. Yes a new crew was brought in to fly it back over to the McConnell air field. I know all this because I am a mechanic on these aircraft here in Wichita.
@@bradwatson9277 I'm trying to remember the news coverage when this happened so correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember that one of the issues was just maneuvering the plane around to position it to take off again. I think the 747 didn't fit the taxiways and there wasn't a tug on the field that could handle it.
@@bradwatson9277 Thanks for the historical perspective from someone with boots on the scene.
@@deancook6832 yes Boeing drove a tug over from our side of McConnell with police escort. That thing only drives at about 5mph. it overheated on the way. They had to pullover and let it cool down. Once they got to us it was a challenge getting it turned around. Alot of pushing it back, disconnecting move the towbar reconnecting and do it again..
This happened at MacDill AFB also. A C-17 landed on a small airport, about ten miles short of the base. It was defueled, cargo removed and passengers removed, in order to get him light enough to take off again. The takeoff was done at night.
🤔
If it's the one I'm thinking of, the news reported General Mattis was on the aircraft and he commended the pilots landing. Probably saved his career.
There's a video of the takeoff. Looks like daytime to me.
I grew up in Wichita (ICT) and learned to fly out of KICT in the late '70s. My second solo was from KICT to KAAO and return. I was do do several touch and goes at KAAO. As I was flying the downwind for runway 1 at AAO I looked out the window ahead of me, rather than at the runway. WOW! that B-52 was big!! One had just taken off from Mac and was headed directly over me. That's the point at which I realized that I was lined up for the centerline of Mac a few miles away. Quite a picture.
After retiring from the Navy, I taught at Flight Safety International over at ICT for several years. We used all the airports in the Wichita area that appeared on our sims for one type of approach or another.
I had retired from FSI by the time this happened, but found out about it within minutes I think. The next day I made it a point to drive by KAAO. The Dreamlifter sure looked out of place. I didn't get to go watch the takeoff. Oh well.
The Wichita area has a huge number of airports. There's one within the Class D airspace for KICT as an example. As I mentioned below in another comment Cessa's field is on the other side of the fence from Mac. There used to be a nice GA field at the outer marker for 19R at KICT. The airspace can get really busy.
David Heinsohn
You'd think if he was cleared to land on 19L and he looked out the window and saw just one runway he might wonder why there was the "Left" designation.
A parallel taxiway can look like a runway. Just ask Harrison Ford..
@@joetroyner I have just one thing to say to that.
"The white zone is for takeoffs and landings. The Yellow zone is for taxiing only."
"Don't start in on your white zone/yellow zone bullshit again"
Especially at a big air force base, the taxi ways and runways are all well marked.
@@erictaylor5462 That pilot clearly picked a bad day to quit sniffing glue..
@@joetroyner Fun fact, that couple were the real life people that made that announcement at LAX in 1980. It wasn't a recording, they did it live for some reason. And they were real life husband and wife.
They had a blast doing to movie. I imagine saying the same thing over and over all day long can get really boring. You would dream of saying something crazy, just once.
Great video I learned a lot, specifically about how the controller should be aware of the aircraft descending so quickly! and man that was funny listening to the confusion when they were on the ground lol. I’m new here to the channel but really enjoy this content!
WildWood 😯
Well, I think the pilot(s) probably got in major trouble. So I feel for them. Hopefully not but the pilot on the mic was struggling with what they had just done.
Excellent analysis. I was surprised that you, as a former controller, found fault in this controller. Good job in sticking to the facts and not just blaming the pilot, who is definitely at fault too!
Nah. The real fault lies with the various field owners/players, who knw perfectly well of the state of confusion and do nothing about it. Each field could easily place a large illuminated signboard at the threshold advertising the field name. You come in and the big letters are all wrong, you abort landing and do the go-around. Do the field owners spend the few bucks? No chance. Blame the pilots, who are always perfect and never ever err. Sure. Real smart.
@@ianlounsbury1544 😊
Greg 🙄
Great video, thanks. Also ATC here. Some of my work has been in Antarctica. In 2000s, we had a Russian heavy AN-124 inbound and cleared to an Ice runway about 10 miles distant (daytime, visibility good). However, directly in the path to that runway was a SECOND Ice runway that had recently been closed due to melting. ATC did not remind the pilot, and he nearly touched down before realizing his error. That plane would have went right through the Ice!
Slight correction to what you said...
UNICOM is not a traffic advisory frequency... thats a VATSIM thing and a total misconception amongst the flight simulator community.
CTAF (Common Traffic Advisory Frequency) is the frequency used for traffic calls or takeoff, landing, position reports in the pattern and vicinity of the airport for aircraft to talk directly with each other.
UNICOM on the other hand is the frequency used or aircraft to communicate with the FBO(s) and request fuel and vending services. When a tower closes, the Tower frequency is to be used as a CTAF. All non-towered public airports have a CTAF frequency.
At smaller non-towered airports however, they don't always have a designated UNICOM frequency and in these cases, UNICOM related transmissions are expected to be made through the CTAF frequency. Hope this makes more sense why we have CTAF's and why we have UNICOM's and the differences between the two:)
🙂
This may have been mentioned already, I apologize that I have not read all 500+ comments before posting this, but at a towered field when the tower is closed, the tower frequency is what pilots use to talk to each other, not Unicom. Well, there may be rare exceptions, but the "C" in a circle tells you that is the CTAF which is to be used When the tower is closed. At towered airports, Unicom is generally used for Fueling, do you have a courtesy car, stuff like that.
This is why I didn't switch an arrival to tower until I was sure they were aimed at the correct airport. This happens way more than people realize.
Mike 😁
That had to be embarrassing for all involved! Excellent commentary and critique!
Was this you @74Gear ? 🤣
This type incident has happened a few times.
There are a few cases of 2 airports somewhat close to each other with their runways essentially in line with each other. It's a simple error to make, misidentifying the airport...
It's a dangerous mistake to make because that can have one airplane land on top of another. Thankfully that hasn't happened yet due to this error.
Tucson and El Paso both come to mind-
Many years ago a 727 ( I think) headed for LEX landed at a small airport in Frankfort (probably about 20 miles away or so). They took the passengers to LEX by bus, lightened the plane as much as necessary and were able to fly it out off the short runway.
I wonder if Kelsey from 74Gear is going to comment on this story....
What comes to mind is how the RNAV GPS approach set him up for the wrong airport. That gives you non-precision approach guidance based upon triplemix navigation information right down to 250 feet above the ground. I don't understand how they could have selected this approach in the FMS and then have it guide them to the wrong piece of pavement. I suppose they could have initiated the flight with KBEC used as the destination, but then their paperwork would be all wrong and the approach plate in their EFB would have clearly stated Beech field instead of McConnell Air Force base.....
?
This story is almost 10 years old, happened in 2013. And, after 7 (sic!) years, NTSB released their extremely "useful" final report, stating the probable cause of the incident was "the flight crew's failure to properly identify the airport and runway of intended landing." That shocking conclusion was well worth waiting. 🤣😂
@@CocotusInterruptus LOL!
I thought the same thing and the fact that he never commented on it makes me wonder if he was part of the crew
I’m wondering if he had something to say about this too.
Yeah it would definitely be interesting to see if Kelsey/74Gear was part of the crew but if not I'd really like to hear his opinion on this mistake. We're all humans we do make mistakes but the avionics and crew on that aircraft should've prevented this.
American pilots (and ATC) love doing “visual” approaches for various reasons. There is no way they were flying the the RNAV GPS approach.
if you are flying IFR, best practice is to back up all visual approaches with an instrument approach. Most Part 121 carriers as well consider this standard practice and require their pilots to do so. It's not a suggestion, it is compulsory per company policy.
@@jman-oz6rr wE HAD CIVILIAN PLANE LAND AT kINLOSS NOT DESTINATION OF iNVERNESS.
What amazes me is that you can clearly see that there is only one runway at Beech - even I could hear that it was 19L - where was the 19R!!!!
They actually landed at Jabara, I was staying at an extended stay next to Jabara while working at Bombardier at ICT. I saw the plane when I came out to go to work the next morning. This occured back in/around 2016.
As a local Wichita native I remember that incident it was somewhere around midnight when it happened as I recall. A pilot who is not familiar with this area could easily get confused. Jabara just happens to be my "home" airport and in the immediate vicinity you have the Beachcraft factory and the Cessna factory airports in addition to McConnell AFB not to mention a high volume of air traffic from Wichita Eisenhower. Cessna's factory air port is literally a short walk around a fence to McConnell. That area can be confusing. As I recall they had to drive a tug from McConnell to Jabara because the plane was far to large to turn around. That huge plane just looked so out of place at that small airport.
Negative, heavy took off from Jabara the next day
Yes, I used to ferry new Cessnas to the west coast and remember those departures from Cessna Field: hard-left, level off just above the trees...
@@sundhaug92 I think you misunderstand. The tug was to push the plane back down the runway to take off since it was too large to turn around. Yes, it did take off the next day.
@@tomloeper8933 Yep, same thing happened at Marana Airport northwest of Tucson. 747 landed but intended to land at Pinal County Airport (airline boneyard) a few miles north. Had to get a tug and push the plane back to the end of the runway.
Yes, the images of control towers in clear, morning skies is misleading. This incident occurred in darkness, late at night. I studied the chart years ago when this happened and the two airports are close with similar runways. It is easy to imagine how this could happen and I'm glad that no damage was done, no lives were lost -- an ideal teaching situation.
The pilots knew it was their last flight in the cockpit
A similar occurrence involving a 787, if I remember correctly, coming in from out west (California maybe) destination Tampa International TPA. I was watching the flight on Flight RADAR 24. It circled the area for several minutes & ended up landing at McDill AFB. I never did hear what that was all about. Would’ve been interesting to know the reason. This was maybe a month ago.
Short answer: open mouth, insert foot.
Long answer: complacency. Pilots saw a runway, saw what they wanted to see and ignored anything to the contrary.
CRM,TRAINING,Simple Technical issue.Hmm
confirmation bias
Does this happen very often? On the Dreamlifter, I would hope the pilots have programmed all the pertinent info into their flight data computer. On a lighter note, these pilots sounded very embarrassed and humiliated. I actually feel sorry for them.
I think what might of happened is they’ll have the airport in the flight computer and when they see the airfield they’ll usually turn off the autopilot and land manually. The issue was they probably saw the wrong airport then cancelled their instrument approach to the correct airport and went visual without looking close enough to make sure they had the right airport.
So yeah ideally this situation shouldn’t happen with all the technology, but it probably happened because they turned off that technology without confirming it was right and they were on the right approach.
Was wondering: Did this happen at night? I can see the added confusion between the two airports with a nighttime arrival. That would also explain why BEC's tower was closed. I have no idea about McConnell, but some airports with parallel runways will only use one runway at night and turn of the lights for the non-active runway. If that was the case here, I can definitely see a mix-up occurring. But I assume it was a visual approach. Always a good idea to back up a visual approach with the localizer tuned and set. I assume McConnell had a functional ILS for the assigned runway. If the Dreamliner crew had that dialed in, they should have seen they were not lined up with the localizer.
Yes, it happened at night and the pilot had landed at McConnell at least 3 times before. While ATC should have caught it, ultimately it was the Captain's mistake. From his previous landings there he knew he had come in high before. Search for the story, too much to tell here, but definitely pilot's fault.
McConnell hosts KC-46 tanker planes (Boeing 767). They have ILS for sure and yes, had they been using it, they would have had all kinds of alarms going off.
Dd you pay attention?
Yes, that's true. I have also noticed that military bases don't always have the latest tech; that seems to be driven by the political party that holds the Pentagon's purse strings.
@@maurice7413 Yes, I think you can argue a cascade-failure occurred. We study them, we learn and we try to engineer out any future reoccurrence
Can you imagine you are flying a small aircraft, you are setting up for your landing and you see a 747 on the runway?
Wasn't flying a small aircraft but I lived near jabara and had to do a double take when I saw the dreamlifter on a runway that typically only landed cessnas and small business jets
And also night time too,just only 50% thrust ,you will be blow out of the runways
I was a news videographer a few years back when we got calls into the newsroom one Sunday night that a SW 737 was at the wrong airport…not Branson but instead KPLK. Sure enough, I see a SW rudder from the highway at the wrong airport.
It took off empty a day or two later…from a 3700’ runway. I feel pretty confident there were some calls between Boeing and SW about what would make or break that takeoff opportunity. I’ve read empty it could make it in 2500’, which is impressive, but the most impressive part is them getting it stopped…because the original landing was in the direction of a 30-40’ dropoff between the end of the runway heading and the highway below. That could have ended up very, very badly. Both KPLK and KBBG are 20 degree apart on heading for their runways.
I do remember that one.
It's unfortunately a human factors problem that is very common even today..... Spokane WA with nearby Fairchild AFB can be confused easily, and Corpus Christi TX is a good example of that exact situation. When landing north at Corpus, the area has a few military airports and when breaking out of the clouds on the approach, it is very easy and common for the first runway in sight to be the wrong one... happened to a Continental crew many years ago. Landed at the Naval Base 4 or 5 miles before Corpus Christi...... good brief and honestly prior experience is key...... unfamiliarity with an airport which is likely in Atlas's case led to landing at the wrong airport.....
GREAT VIDEO. Glad you. Posted. Fun reading the comments. Good work!
Along with that....back in the 80's, I saw a pair of F4's attempt landing at Tampa International... Did not hear the audio, but the landing turned into a touch and go after they looked around a bit. They were *supposed* to be at McDill AFB about 10 miles south...
Congrats 3K_+ subs. Well done young man.
I am a low hour pilot. In training at the part 141school I went to we had people navigate to and land at the wrong airport a number of times. It doesn’t make sense that a pilot with the hours and training to fly that plane would make that mistake unless he was fatigued or compromised in some way. He clearly was not on top of the work load. My senior flight instructor of over thirty years used to tell me that glass cockpits would lead to this type of thing; pilots would be more dependent and less aware.
Awesome 👏
You’re very informative. Thanks!
New sub. Love this. Thank you for your service.
here in the UK there was the same thing at an airport close to where I live - in 1960 a Pan Am 707 was inbound to London Heathrow and at that time there used to be a big gas storage tank (gasometer) located on the approach that was used as a visual navigation point. Unfortunately RAF Notholt's runway was only 20 degrees off the alignment of Heathrow and there was also a very similar gasometer on the approach leading to the captain mistakenly identying Northolt as Heathrow and landing there
It sounds wonderfully old school, using prominent landscape features for navigation.
@@RandomGuyyy from memory they painted a large white N on one and H on the other either after this incident or a similar one - both gas storage tanks gone now - it also didn't help that Northolt is only around 5 miles north of Heathrow
super impressed that they could land that plane on that much shorter and narrower runway. I doubt these pilots will ever make this mistake again. I expect they took off ok and made their ultimate destination, which is also an incredible feat taking off on that runway with that plane!
Really excellent video! Awesome details and explanations! Subscribed!
You have a cool channel man, you do a great job.
Wow, what a mess. Another great video.
The way the airports are set up when you drive between them I can see how the mistake we’ve been made. I live in Wichita Kansas and really close to McConnell. And I also work at Jabara. Just a little info they ended up getting the aircraft to takeoff they had to push it all the way back to the point of the runway with minimum fuel and as light as possible. Editing up taking off.
This one would be a good one for @Mentour Pilot
Or @74gear as he is actually a dreamlifter pilot.
Or Juan Browne @Blancolirio channel (he’s a very experienced 777 pilot)
@@burstmedia1829 I was listening to see if I recognized the voice. 😅
@@jathompson37 haha me too, was listening for his voice.
I'm pretty sure Kelsey did a video about this incident.
@@burstmedia1829 definetly
Opps! I haven't heard of that happening since one of the FB-111s from Plattsburgh AFB landed at the county airport. Rwy was too shot to take off so it had to be towed back to the base. 😆 I was stationed at McConnell for a few years. Yep, lots of runways in that area!
Lived in Tampa in the mid 80s. There was a GA airport (Peter O. Knight) in east Tampa, with 3500’ runways 04/22. There is also Macdill AFB directly across the bay with runways also 04/22. Was plane spotting at Knight one day and lo and behold there was a C-141 on short final for POK. He realized it at about 100feet and continued on to Macdill. Not sure what happened after that.
This happens several times a year at Spang-Dahlem Air Base in Germany. This happens several times a year at Spang-Dahlem Air Base in Germany. The planes want to land in Bitburg, and Bitburg is very close to Spang-Dahlem and also looks very similar.
Thanks for your service! Wonder if Kelsey was the pilot?!! 😂🤣😅😅🤣🤣
It happened in Ireland in 2006. A Ryanair flight landed at the wrong airport when the pilot mistook the military landing strip at nearby Ballykelly for the City of Derry Airport.
I just became an official Air traffic controller and it feels good to understand the lingo. Though, I haven't been rated in a tower yet.
Jabara is just now repairing the runway from this, we had to relocate our plane to 3AU for a week.
It was cool to see this thing at such a small airport takeoff, they had to shut-down the traffic on HWY-96 as they took off from Runway 36 and the jet blast would have blown the cars around as the highway was only 1,400 feet to the south of the runway . . .
I just play MS Flightsimulator but when I spot the runway visually, I usually just fly by sight alone.
So I guess if you're an actual pilot doing that, if the airport is unfamiliar to you (no landmarks to visually guide you) and if there's a bit of wind involved + bad visibility, once you think the runway you spotted is the correct one, you're going to land on it.
74 Gear should have fun with this
Coming up
I used to fly a Cessna 172 from a local airfield, which had an identical layout military airfield 4 miles away. I was on final to runway 36 when the military controller said that I was lined up to his airfield, and that my airfield was 6 miles in my 11 o clock. I thanked him and said I wondered why his airfield had a better grass centre field than ours.
First time to visit your channel. Nice job!
A few years ago a B52 was showing off its long range by flying from the US to the Farnborough airshow in the UK, doing a fly by, and returning to the US non stop. They got the wrong airfield. They did a fly by at Blackbush airport about 6 miles away then toddled back to the US.
While the ultimate responsibility lied with the crew, the controllers in the tower at McConnell(they have tower radar) AND the Wichita approach controller were NOT paying attention and definitely had high culpability. I have worked at many FAA tower and approach control facilities, and over 40years, have saved a number of these wrong surface landing events( as the FAA calls them) from occurring. Also, as a pilot, it’s obvious that the crew were not paying attention to the very clear visual color display that showed their distance from the intended landing runway and what they were seeing out the window and sense , something just ain’t right. While true, this was at night, from a pilot’s point of view(which I also am), if paying close attention, as they should have been, to mistake that small general aviation airport, SINGLE runway, for the giant KIAB(McConnell) airport complex , ramp and apron lights , TWO 12,000 foot parallel runways, and approach lights, was inexcusable . Correlating their current distance on the moving map display, their altitude for the given distance on the approach chart would have given them plenty of clues that something is very wrong here. While there have been many same past events , like this one with the airport runways with very close orientations and distances : this was clearly , not the case in this event. What makes this all the worse, is that This captain has previously flown into IAB on three previous occasions and knew the complexities of the Wichita airport area environs. Thank goodness, with an 8,000 ft runway at BEC, and no aircraft damage, they were able to fly it out the following day to IAB. I have a Beechcraft and have visited the factory at BEC. If you are tired, unfamiliar with an airport and/or both, stick with the chart and monitor you distance and altitude closely , use the VASI, verify with the controller or anything else that will help for a successful approach and landing if something doesn’t feel right and don’t do visual approaches unless you intimately know the area. Even then, be careful, especially at night. I hope this wasn’t TMI. Nice graphics and vid with actual audio. Keep it up!
But he didn't land at BEC, he landed at Jabara. It comes up later in the video.
@@MrAerocomposites It seems it's easy, even sitting on the ground, to misidentify an airport.
Really enjoyed your commentary with this video! Different from other channels!
I believe something similar happened with a 707, intending to land at CMH, landed at a GA airport west of the city. As I recall, the runway was so short that they had to strip the airplane of all of the interior furnishings and off load all of the fuel except just enough to get them to CMH.
It was a really really long time ago and yes, TWA Flight 30 landed at KOSU instead of KCMH. They had to strip it down to basically just an airframe with a minimum amount of gas in it. There were rumors that ultimately TWA rehired the pilot - either because he was the only one willing to attempt to takeoff from there or because they figured out he had to be one hell of a pilot to land it there. I'm not sure if anyone has that part of the story.
Check out the Taca 737 on approach to New Orleans International (MSY). They had a dual flameout while flying through a heavy rain fall. They could not get either engine to restart and the crew was going to ditch in Lake Pontchartrain. When they broke out of the clouds they spotted a levee near the NASA Facility. They dead sticker the B-737 on to the levee.
My understanding was a few days later they took off from a portion of an old runway at the NASA Facility that was being used as a road inside the facility. The 737 was lightened as much as possible and only had about 10,000 lbs of fuel on board. They were airborne in less than 2,000 feet for about a 20 mile flight to MSY.
I believe there is a video by The Flight Channel here on You Tube.
I wonder what the controller thought when the aircraft in the landing approach suddenly stopped moving, appearing to be floating there in midair!
Interesting case here. So the RNAV approach for 19L at McConnell AFB is an LNAV approach with an MDA so the pilot had no vertical guidance. Also, given that the one airport's tower was closed, this makes me think it was at night. The pilot also slipped and almost said he was on visual approach when he was on the RNAV approach, so he probably thought he had the field in sight and didn't focus on the instruments anymore. There would be DME so he could at least confirm his distance visually with what his GPS is saying, which might be hard to do at night. I can see how this definitely can happen.
Don, what was the other pilot doing or should have been doing? We know that answer.
@@jcheck6 I don't know which pilot was flying the approach and who was observing, but since they were flying the RNAV, whoever was observing should've been keeping an eye on the distance to gauge the missed approach point. But then again, if both pilots were locked on the visual approach, then both would've missed it. I'm willing to bet that's the case when they should've been taking the RNAV approach in since that is what they were cleard for.
@@ef2111 Exactly Don. When I was in the right or left seat I did opposite of what the other was doing.
You should Collaborate with 74 gear he’s flys the Dream lifter
That would be great 👍
Kelsey would never have a comedy of errors.
@@TheGospelQuartetParadise I love Kelsey he Demonstrates both of you gonna have a wonderful sense of humor and be a great professional the same time
If I had to venture a guess it would be that Kelsey has been told to not comment on this incident.
@@Flies2FLL I was kinda thinking the same thing but for some reason I don’t think this was his company.
Surprised the pilot didn't ask for the number to ring to report a definite deviation to another airport.
Steve 🙂
I doubt 4241 was the 1st aircraft to make that mistake and certainly not the last.
Definitely not the first nor the last....If my memory serves me correctly another Dreamlifter did the exact same thing back in 2013
I worked at the Beach factory for several years and personally witnessed 2 very similar events. One was a USAF kc135 almost landed at beech but realized it right before touching down and went on. The other was a small twin that actually landed at beech when he intended to land at Jabara. I actually spoke with him, he was not happy to say the least.
i dont think the aircraft made a mistake, probably the two pilots that did it wrong.
Any sort of instrument approach (including RNP approach’s (formally know as GPS)) is unlikely to result with landing at the wrong airport. Visual approach’s however is most likely the cause. Our company briefing material will warn crews of other airports on the final approach to avoid confusion. Flew into Catania (Sicily) yesterday and briefed that we will be flying by Siginella military airport on the approach. Appropriate briefing will help ensure high situational awareness to avoid this embarrassing mistake. Capt A320
Flown in to Jabara a few times myself, intentionally though.
ATC "...say intentions?" , Giant Captain "well first I think I'll cry a little bit..."
Very interesting situation! A Dreamlifter modified 747 is a huge aircraft. I was wondering if this airport had enough runway length to take off without taking action to reduce their weight.
I wonder if he was even able to turn around, those taxiways look pretty narrow.
Jabara has a 6100 ft runway, the 747 Dreamlifter is a huge plane and sources say that this one was "quite fully loaded" the dreamlifter has a takeoff run at MTOW (364,235 kg) of 9200 ft. However I am assuming that the this Dreamlifter wasn't at MTOW weight because the pilot managed to land it safely on a runway about 900 feet shorter than required under MLW (295,742 kg) 7000ft
So we know it was probably least 70,000kg lighter than MTOW and actually probably much lighter than that.
Either Way Boeing did the math first and determined that they could safely takeoff from Jabara without unloading, They brought equipment out and turned the Dreamlifter around and flew it out of Jabara to McConnell without issue.
I am a low time GA pilot (~3,000 hrs), but I have flown into Wichita many times. Landing there at night can be very challenging b/c there are so many airports in close proximity to each other. I have never landed on the wrong runway or at the wrong airport --- but I have landed at 389 different airports in the US (I keep a database of airports landed).
That’s a short runway they landed on. Just over 6,000’ and 100’ wide. Scale can be hard to perceive, but you would think they would notice that something doesn’t look right on the approach.
This is as bad as a C17 landing at Peter O' Knight Airport in 2012 with a runway length of 3583 Ft instead of its landing destination Mcdill AFB FL (With over 11,000 Ft of Runway available) which is a few miles away. Lucky it was a C17 as they stop in short distance & after removing cargo and minimizing fuel, it took off few days later for its short flight to its intended destination, Amazing skill by both the arriving and departing pilots, Great Video & always interesting with aircraft landing at incorrect runways.
M T
Had an Airliner miss the Rapid City, SD airport several years ago and land at Ellsworth Air Force Base instead. They didn't take kindly to that.
Woods 🙄
Something like that happened around Tampa FL several years ago. Pilot was supposed to land at the Airforce base and landed at a smaller airport. Can't remember all the details but they had problems moving the plane as well. Something about it being to heavy.
Essentially, the cause came down to a few things:
- This was a night approach, and McConnell is hard to see unless the lights are on the brightest setting. They apparently were not.
- One of the two runways at McConnell was out of service and had its lights turned off, so they were only looking for one lit runway.
- Jabara, on the other hand, was unusually well lit.
- The crew had briefed their landing as a visual approach on the RNAV course and flew it as such, and per company policy were using the RNAV as a backup.
- The briefing did not include a review of exactly what the lighting configuration on their target runway was (it is different from the nearby airports).
- The captain was flying, and the pilot flying's job is to keep his head out the window.
- The first officer was monitoring, and the pilot monitoring's job is to keep an eye on navigation, radios and instruments.
- The first officer's primary flight display had started to malfunction several minutes earlier, and he was compensating by cross-checking to the captain's display. This situation, incidentally, means they should not have actually flown the RNAV approach, and should have either switched pilots, or re-briefed for a pure visual approach and damn the company policy. Either way would have required holding and re-briefing the approach.
- The captain's display was zoomed in too far to show McConnell at this stage of flight (it was set to 5 miles).
- The captain's previous 3 flights on this same approach had been high on the approach, so he was expecting to have to push the plane down below the approach the autopilot "wanted" to take.
- So the captain saw what he thought he was going to see, a well-lit airport, with a steeper approach than the computer wants, and flew towards it.
- The first officer couldn't see the flight director on his own screen, and thus couldn't see that the captain was not on the approach the RNAV system wanted them to take, but he could see on the captain's display that they were headed towards *an* airport, and he looked outside and saw that, in fact, they were heading towards a well lit airport.
It's somewhat interesting that they didn't notice the lighting difference anyway, because McConnell is one of the most common airfields for Dreamlifter operations (Spirit Aerosystems builds 737 and 787 fuselages there).
It’s easy to do. Back in the early 60’s a DC-8 landed at troutdale municipal airport about ten miles east of PDX , Portland Internationaal Airport
Wanted to land at McConnell, actually landed at Jabara, and told ATC that he was at Beech.
I wonder which Burger King this pilot works at now!
From listening to the pilot's comments and asking 'How many airports are around you to the north?' my guess is that there was NO briefing done, before the approach or even before departure. His Chief Pilot is going to be 'upset' to say the least.
This happens more then people think. Wasn't there a C17 that landed at the wrong airport down in Florida years ago as well?
Usually happens on a visual appch rather than a instrument since the waypoints would lead up to the destination airport.
The chap in ATC sounded like he was half asleep.
This is the second time Atlas Air, (Giant) has made this mistake. Similar mistake was made some time around 2005 or so. Back in early 2000's a Atlas aircraft landed at a small airport instead of Mirrana north of Tucson AZ.
I’ve been in this situation too where 3 airports lineup…. Confusing
Same thing happened here in Tampa a couple of times. The most recent was a USAF C-17 landing at Peter O. Knight Airport(KTPF) when it was supposed to land at MacDill AFB(KMCF). The runways are on the same heading but TPF is south of the approach for MCF, and the runway is a lot shorter. They had to burn a lot of gas to lighten the C-17 but it was able to takeoff without damaging the runway. The same thing happened back in the early 90's when a C-130 from one of the South American air forces was going into MCF and landed at TPF instead.
Many non-pilots may be surprised to learn that most landings are made visually, after the flight crew has “acquired” the landing runway visually at the end of an instrument approach. RNAV procedures are very common, as are visual approaches (an IFR procedure), usually to save time, but in all cases it is recommended best practice (not required) to tune the ILS to the intended runway, mostly to avoid this type of incident. Wrong airport incidents have happened frequently, and in Wichita, where the aircraft manufacturers have their own runways, the abundance of airports in close proximity makes this a particular risk. If the ILS is tuned to the correct runway it gives a positive indication, precluding a wrong-airport or wrong-runway incident. I was not trained to do this in my initial instrument training, but in recurrent training it has become de-rigueur.
Greg 🙄
Ooops. That's why they put erasers on the end of Dreamlifters. Poor bastards. I bet they would never make that mistake again.
I have heard that commercial pilots usually have an Arnav or ILS approach dialed in, even if they’re coming in visually. That should’ve provided clues, At least he was way too low at that point. Complacency is a killer. Luckily it didn’t kill this time
😑
Well, I was also an Army controller. The controller clears him and tells him which turn off and never saw the a/c? Not good.
My dad said those things happen often back in his military day from the 1970's to early 2000's
Thanks for your service Marine. Hand Salute from this American Legion Post Commander.
when 121 operations accept a visual approach, they still back this up with RNAV approach as cleared in this scenario. Both lateral and vertical navigation is given, assuming an approach was loaded in the FMS. Only way i can think of is they did NOT load they approach in their box. They flew this completely visual. Poor planning and poor monitoring.
👋
Looking at the map, it appears there are several airports around the Wichita Area.
Nobody mentioned the weather for this day. These Pilots are lucky.
Shows why you should always back up a visual approach, with an approach in the FMS.
One thing that cracked me up was about them, while scratching their heads on the ground, not being able to figure out where they were. Early in the audio it became clear they were using GPS. Using GPS and not moving......what is the lat/lon and what part of the earth is at that lat/lon?
Hey Bill 🙄😯
I used to fly out of the Wichita area and have flown into Jabara many times. I’m sorry, but I am at a loss of words how a crew expecting to land at a 12000’ twin runway military airport landed 8 miles away at a pretty podunk single runway 6000’ runway. Did they have the approach loaded into their FMS? Sure, the controller could have given them a low altitude alert, but I’m putting this entirely on the 2 idiots upfront of a modified 747 freighter. I would expect this type of mistake to be their last at Atlas Air as they should probably be fired. And they originally thought they landed at Beech, lol.
We have this problem at Rapid City SD. Runways are five miles apart and almost the same heading, The air base runway is highly visible and the city airport is very difficult to see. If Rapid City's tower didn't have you in sight they would ask you which side of the runway are the buildings on before they would clear you to land. It was a daily occurrence that someone was heading for the wrong airport. Two airliners have landed at the air base. Not a good career move.
Keep in mind this is not News. It occurred in Nov 2013.