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.
Ryanair flight FR-7347 had to return and make an emergency landing at Henri Coanda International Airport, Romania, on February 9th.
American Eagle flight 5946 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Louisville International Airport, Kentucky, on September 25th.
Virgin Australia flight VA-1536 suffered a lightning strike near Sydney, Australia, on April 2nd.