747 Dreamlifter lands at wrong airport ?

[Bogon07]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-2...irport/5109806

A giant cargo plane has successfully taken off from a small Kansas airport after accidentally landing there the night before.
The Boeing 747 Dreamlifter, on route from New York, mistakenly landed at Colonel James Jabara Airport, about 13 kilometres from its intended destination, McConnell Air Force Base.
The pilot expressed surprised when an air traffic controller told him he had just landed at the wrong airport.
"We don't know why it landed at Jabara airport instead of McConnell," said Wichita Airport Authority spokeswoman, Valerie Wise.
"[The plane] landed safely. There was no damage to the aircraft and no damage to the airport."
There were concerns the two kilometre runway at the airport would not be able to handle the take off of the giant cargo plane.
Atlas Air, which operates the aircraft, brought in a tug to turn the plane around and its engineers ran calculations on whether it could take off again.
"They feel it is perfectly safe to take off from Jabara," Ms Wise said before takeoff.
Their fears proved unfounded the next afternoon, when the aircraft taxied and took off without a hitch in cold, rainy weather.
Once airborne, it was a short flight. The plane landed just minutes later at the correct airport.

How is it possible for a big jet to accidentally land at the wrong airport ? I suppose it it easy to be confused flying at night but aren't there supposed to be flight plans and navigational aids to prevent this happening.

[cwent2]

Boggles the mind, but rest assured someone lost their job!

Cw

[Mod_wolves]

Isn't this the plane that lands itself? Maybe during the sat nav construction there was a calculation error to say turn left rather than right? I wonder when it landed it said "recalculating".

[MisterBoll]

It was no accident.

[tandaina]

Yes, this plane lands itself, the pilots clearly state that the PLANE landed at the wrong airport... I'm guessing someone got the signals wrong or never accounted for airports that close or something.

[Bogon07]

So the pilots are saying the plane did it not them.
How do you reprimand a plane.

[cwent2]

So the pilots are saying the plane did it not them.
How do you reprimand a plane.

Bad plane no brisket!

Some one should have been paying attention to where the plane was landing!

[KrazyIvan]

I'm on the it was no accident side of the spectrum. Now we know where the alien underground base that the government has been hiding is located.

[snedwos]

The rebel base, huh, Lord Ivan?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[KrazyIvan]

Was it that obvious?

[ransky]

This sort of thing usually happens when two airports with similar runway layouts are located in close proximity. The pilot uses flight instruments to navigate to the correct airport, and then cancels his instrument flight plan and proceeds visually for landing. Unfortunately, he/she is visually bore-sighted on the wrong airport and then whoops... Not a career enhancing move. You might think that with all the controllers, approach radars, etc... that this would never happen. And it almost never does. However, every once in a while the holes in the swiss cheese line up, as we say, and the controller turns his attention to another blip on his scope, tower issues landing instructions thinking the pilot will sort out his approach (professional courtesy is almost always given to a pilot), and the runways at the two airports are lined up the exact same way. Approach publications carry warnings when airports are nearly co-located like this, but it still happens. Ouch. It pays to be nice to your copilot.

[MmmCuppycakes]

I know this is an old post, but I remember when this happened and they had to redo the runway since the plane was too heavy for it. Does anyone live in Wichita too? There seems to be a lack of people interested in pens here.

[sharmon202]

I live in Hutch, there are 3 airport within spittin distance of each other. I love pens

[oldstoat]

This keeps happening.....
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=195711
Though looking the pictures the civil airport and the military base are very close to each other