Plane Lands at Air Force Base by Mistake

[Champ]

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A Northwest Airlines flight that was headed to Rapid City, S.D., landed a few miles off course at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and passengers had to wait in the plane for more than three hours while their crew was interrogated.


Passengers on Northwest Flight 1152, an Airbus A-319 from St. Paul, expected to be welcomed to Rapid City Regional Airport on Saturday, but after about five minutes they were told to close their window shades and not look out, said passenger Robert Morrell.


"He (the pilot) hemmed and he hawed and he said 'We have landed at an Air Force base a few miles from the Rapid City airport and now we are going to figure out how we're going to get from here to there,'" Morrell told the St. Paul Pioneer Press by cell phone during the delay Saturday.


Eventually, the captain and first officer were replaced by a different Northwest crew for the short hop to the right airport.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&ncid=816&e=1&u=/ap/20040620/ap_on_re_us/wrong_airport

[Xithras]

1. Huh?

How exactly does a commercial airline pilot ACCIDENTALLY land at the wrong airport? More importantly, how come nobody in the tower warned him off?

Methinks there's a LOT more to this story.

[Champ]

2. LOL

I was wondering the same thing.

It's a funny story imo.

[7th_Sephiroth]

3. interrogated?

A Northwest Airlines flight that was headed to Rapid City, S.D., landed a few miles off course at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and passengers had to wait in the plane for more than three hours while their crew was interrogated. yeah yeah, the usual, why did you land here? i dont believe you, "now get naked and lets get pictures of you being dragged by a leash"

[bill grasso]

4. Incompetence in high places..

we should be used to screw ups like this.. we have Bush..

actually, mistaken landings of this sort are not uncommon, although less likely to occur in the commercial aviation arena..

In the mid -80's, a Delta flight bound for Tampa landed, in broad daylight, at MacDill AFB, which is on the OPPOSITE side of Tampa Bay.

A few years later, as a maintenance observer on a Chicago to Albany, NY flight, I had to point out to the Captain he was lining up with the Schenectady Airport, rather than Albany, which is a few miles further east and on the opposite side of the Mohawk River.

You see what you want to see...

[olddem43]

5. That's not the first time

something like that has happened. Several years ago a commercial airliner landed at a small local airport by mistake. The runways were too short to take off from too. I don't remember how they got it back out of there. This whole crew must have been half asleep or on something. I'm sure their careers are over.

[ladjf]

9. About 40 years ago a Delta flight from Memphis landed

at Yazoo city, about 45 miles from Jackson, their intended destination. It was a night flight, the weather was clear. The saw the Yazoo City, Ms. airport, radioed Hawkins tower at Jackson, giving their position as being North of Hawkins airport. They were cleared to land. And the landed at Yazoo City.

The passengers were bused to Jackson. The corps of engineers from Vicksburg, Ms. extended the runway with some metal plates. The plane was stripped down to lighten the load and then flown out.

I've often wondered how such a big navigation mistake could have been made. The only slight excuse was the runways a Jackson and Yazoo City were aligned in the same direction.

I did hear of an airline mistaking a wheat field for the airport. That's even worse.

[Brahma Bull]

6. This is weird.

How does a plane accidentally land on an airforce base?

I would've looked out the windows. :)

[Race4Peace]

7. Any Idea why they were told to "close their window shades"

[bill grasso]

8. no photos allowed..