Uhmm.. Wrong airport pal

[AllPurposeAtheist]

A 747 Dreamlifter 'accidentally' landed at a small airport outside of Wichita last night. The problem might not seem so obvious till you learn the runway is only 3000 feet to short for takeoff.. DOH! :-D
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/travel/ka ... g-airport/

[Sal1981]

Can't they just empty the plane of cargo and some of the fuel? says they need 9k feet for a fully loaded plane.

[Plu]

I'm guessing unloading the plane and then moving all the cargo in some other way is more expensive than tugging the plane to the other airport, or something like that.

Still that's quite a fuckup there. At least he mistakenly landed on another airport and not a road.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I'm guessing they might need to extend the runway, but I'm not an aviation expert. Still..someone really, really fucked up.
Aren't these 'state of the art' dreamliners/lifters supposed to have something with a gps in them?

[Solitary]

There are many airports in that area. And my GPS has not only sent me to the wrong address but even the wrong city. I don't believe there was a control tower at this airport. They calculated that the plane can take off today at noon. I hope they have a video of it taking off from the end of the run way.   :shock:    Solitary

[mykcob4]

Lifting off is a very difficult feat even empty. Depending on the barametric pressure there might not be enough runway for a plane that large to safely take off. There is a safety requirement that a runway be long enough for an aircraft to abort takeoff if necessary.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Maybe I'm a tad naive, but shouldn't large aircraft have better navigational tools than your cell phone? :)

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Whaddaya know? It just took off up, up and away! Well, this is a good reason to shorten every runway, huh?

[Solitary]

You would think my car would have one that is good, I don't have a cell phone. I'd give credit to the pilot for getting it back up and away. I think he needs a new navigator though.    Solitary

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Hey, if we can have shorter runways then OBVIOUSLY we can have shorter roads, eh?

[Youssuf Ramadan]

Maybe I'm a tad naive, but shouldn't large aircraft have better navigational tools than your cell phone? :)

lol  

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Problem solved.. FCC says you can use your cell phone on flights. So when the pilot is trying to land that brand new Dreamliner on someone's driveway you can say, NOT SO FAST BUSTER! :)

[Aletheia]

When a "duh" moment happens at work, usually your co-workers laugh and poke fun for a bit. When a pilot has a "duh" moment, well...

[Johan]

Believe it or not, its a lot easier than you would think to land at the wrong airport. Even in large transport category aircraft. I'm not forgiving the crew here, they definitely screwed the pooch on this one and there's no excuse for it.

But when you're approaching an airport, especially at night, your only means of identifying it visually are some blinking and non blinking groups of lights among a literal sea of other blinking a non blinking lights.

An airport I used operate out of has a house track just a few miles from the end of one of the runways. This track has lights in a row similar to what you find on runways. It is not uncommon to hear aircraft on approach report to the tower that the there are horses loose on the runway. At which point the tower will reply you are attempting to land on a race track, the runway is still 2.5 miles in front of you. Sheepish apologies often follow.

I'm not forgiving the crew. This could have easily been avoided. But its really amazing how easy it can be to mistake on airport for another if your not careful.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

And yet while riding the bus I can track my location to within a few feet. Maybe airline pilots should carry cheap cell phones...you know.. just in case? :)