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Southwest Flight Lands at Wrong Airport; Pilots Suspended

The pilots who flew flight 4013 (Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700) and landed at the wrong airport nine miles from the correct airport on Sunday have been suspended. Yes, they landed safely but at the wrong airport. Hello. The PIC and copilot have a combined flight experience of twenty-six years. Guess they weren’t (as the video says) “paying attention.”

Nothing for the passengers to worry their pretty little heads about.
Please note the above line is sarcasm.

Southwest Airlines said:

“The Southwest Airlines Pilot in command of flight #4013 safely landed at (PLK) Taney County airport this evening. The Boeing 737-700 carried 124 Customers and a crew of five and was operating as a scheduled flight from Chicago Midway to Branson.

Our ground crew from the Branson airport has arrived at the airport to take care of our Customers and their baggage. The landing was uneventful, and all Customers and Crew are safe.”

The runway was half as long as normal, the plane stopping three hundred feet short of the drop off at the runway’s end.

The PIC was cleared to land at Branson, right before it nailed the landing at M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport.

So we’re all waiting for the investigation to hear the answers to why it happened, why the co-pilot didn’t catch the mistake (or maybe he did?), if confusion between Branson and Southwest is a common thing, and all those other questions that come up.

See Videos Below

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Ethiopian Airliner Diverts, Mired At Arusha Airport

On December 18, Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767-383ER #ET-AQW en route from Addis Ababa to Zanzibar-Kisauni Airport diverted to Arusha Airport. On landing on the too short runway, the plane’s wheels departed the pavement and became mired in soft ground.

No one was injured in the landing.

There is a rumor that the pilots diverted from the Zanzibar airport because they were unable to land there because there was a vehicle on the runway with a flat tire. The plane was nearly out of fuel and the best/closest option was Arusha. Passengers waited aboard as air stairs were driven from Kilimanjaro airport to Arusha—time consuming, but stairs eliminate the likelihood of injury by emergency evacuation on slides.

The diversion to Arusha is under inquiry; they apparently landed without clearance and once they were down, asked where they were. It is unknown if, even under the most favorable conditions (i.e., empty with experts at the helm), the plane can take from the short runway. It remains to be seen how the crew will fare for this decision, but some credit should be given for landing a 767 safely onto a 4500′ runway with zero casualties. Some armchair pilots are guessing that the pilots mistook Arusha for Kilimanjaro airport, mistaking Mount Meru for Kilimanjaro.

ethiopia

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Atlas Oops.

By now you have probably heard already about the Atlas Air Boeing 747 which was en route from New York to Wichita, Kansas…and landed at the wrong airport. The intended destination was McConnell Air Force Base, which has runways long enough for the 747 to take off and land. But the actual destination was Col. James Jabara Airport which has no control tower, is much smaller, and does not accommodate the big jets.

Somewhat ironically, the plane’s cargo was a B-787 fuselage going to Boeing.

The Atlas Air 747 needs a 9,200 foot runway. Because it had used up enough fuel, it was light enough Thursday to successfully take off from Jabara’s 6,101 foot runway. The cargo flight landed safely at McConnell. Two pilots were flown from New York to Wichita to make the flight. Below is a video of the take-off.

See video of successful take off

KPTV – FOX 12

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Oops Sriwijaya Wrong Airport


Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Ariodilah Virgantara

What: Sriwijaya Boeing 737-400 en route from Medan to Padang
Where: Padang
When: Oct 13 2012
Who: 96 aboard
Why: The flight was en route to Minangkabau International but ended up landing at Tabing Airport 14km apart.

Passengers disembarked and were bussed to Minangkabau International Airport.

There were no injuries. The cockpit-voice and flight-data recorders have been secured for the investigation and the pilot and copilot have been grounded as the situation is investigated by the Transportation Ministry.