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Delta Plane Mistakenly Lands at South Dakota Air Force Base

ucfgrad93

ucfgrad93

macrumors Core
Original poster
Aug 17, 2007
19,607
10,914
Colorado
Oops! I wonder what will happen to the flight crew.

More than 100 Delta passengers on board a flight bound for Rapid City, South Dakota got an unexpected surprise Thursday night when their plane mistakenly landed at an Air Force Base, about five miles north of the aircraft's intended target.

Ellsworth Air Force Base confirmed in a statement to ABC that while it was an unauthorized landing, "Base officials followed the proper procedures to address the situation and ensure the safety of our Airmen, their families and the passengers."

Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.
The flight crew of the Airbus A320 has since been taken off-duty, according to Delta.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/delta-plane-mistakenly-lands-south-dakota-air-force/story?id=40444218
 
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This is not that rare. What's worse, is that sometimes the runway is shorter than what's supposed to be for the plane.

Or how about landing on a taxiway instead of the runway?
 
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I love reading such carefully worded military or civilian air-travel-related press releases. Future thrillers and action adventure movies lurk within.

Flight crew off duty? They be picking up litter on the median strips by now!
 
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Our small regional airport is very close to a small, but commercial and international airport. This commercial airport was the terminal flight location for an Eastern Airline route that made several stops along the East Coast. It was scheduled to land at 11:07 PM every night. After landing the crew would rush across the street to a local bar/restaurant that was very popular and usually crowded with local girls who were impressed with pilots. Several times a new pilot would start his approach to the runway only to realize as he got close he was not at the airport he expected to be at! They would hit the throttles and pull up hard, waking everyone who lived within a couple of miles of the airport.
 
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rhett7660 said:
Stop it, they ended up in Hawaii! Well that is where mine ended up a few years ago when I was flying to Georgia. Not bitter. Not bitter at all. But they did bring to the house when they arrived. So that was nice.
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Your luggage went to Hawaii when you went to Georgia? Errrrmm.... close!

What does happen to air crew when they appear to have colluded (by default of attention?!) in landing at the wrong airport in good weather?

I mean the quote from the bomb wing commander at the AFB sounded like taking pretty dim view: "Incidents like this occur when pilots fail to execute the basic measures of airmanship."

Well, I guess so! (assuming the weather was clear).

Further into the piece it's explained that this stuff happens when pilot and co-pilot don't both confirm that the runway the pilot has selected jibes with the navigation aids and ATC instructions.

So an inattentiveness issue? What does that set the crew members back, considering they breached security at a military base? Even if the AFB guys had visual ID on the commercial plane, they could (and should) wonder.
 
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If you send a letter from the US to Switzerland, it might go through Swaziland first.
 
cube said:
If you send a letter from the US to Switzerland, it might go through Swaziland first.
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I guess that was meant to relate to the baggage routing, right? Or the way long distance landline phone calls work. Or like when some Apple gear goes from HK to AK to TN and then has some weird-looking in-state tracking as it tries to end up with a bunch of stuff enough to make a truckload from a depot around here. It makes sense, though.

But a passenger plane landing on the wrong airstrip, no.
 
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More than 100 Delta passengers on board a flight bound for Rapid City, South Dakota got an unexpected surprise Thursday night when their plane mistakenly landed at an Air Force Base, about five miles north of the aircraft's intended target.
[...]
Expected to land at 8:50 p.m. local time, Delta flight 2845 eventually landed nearly three hours later at 11:31 p.m. local time.
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You could walk it quicker...
 
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LizKat said:
I love reading such carefully worded military or civilian air-travel-related press releases. Future thrillers and action adventure movies lurk within.

Flight crew off duty? They be picking up litter on the median strips by now!
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Yes, agreed.

I must admit that I love studying the euphemistic language in such statements, or press releases, too.
 
Volusia said:
They would hit the throttles and pull up hard, waking everyone who lived within a couple of miles of the airport.
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Don't you sort of wonder what the reaction to the Delta flight was at the military airstrip? Not the first time I guess? "Here comes another one, just like the other one..."

Back in the day when there wasn't much traffic into the Oneonta airport, which isn't far from here as the crows (and planes) fly, we used to hear the mail plane pull up and go around again once in awhile in dicey weather late at night. It was a pretty startling sound echoing around in all the hills that surround that city, sounded like a bunch of planes trying to dodge each other. I haven't heard that in a long time, they must truck the mail in from Binghamton now. Or ele all the daredevil mail pilots have retired.
 
I squawked about this over at the FlightAware forums.

http://flightaware.com/squawks/view...elta_Flight_Mistakenly_Lands_at_Ellsworth_AFB

To be honest, this is the first time that Delta did this, though you could argue that it isn't.

Back in 2004, Northwest Airlines did the same exact thing; mistook Ellsworth AFB for Rapid City Regional Airport, and landed there. It was because of that initial incident that a NOTAM was sent by the FAA to all pilots warning them about the proximity of KRAP being close to KRCA, and to verify that they are on the proper final approach course for KRCA.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jet-errs-lands-at-air-force-base/

Apparently, DAL didn't get the memo..

BL.
 
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MacNut said:
Delta not having a good few weeks.
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Depending..

DAL serves Australia. Say you were down there on a nice vacation, and then the day you fly back, your flight is cancelled, then cancelled again the following day, and the day after that.

Are you really going to complain that you are staying 3 extra days in your vacation destination?!? :D

BL.
 
bradl said:
Depending..

DAL serves Australia. Say you were down there on a nice vacation, and then the day you fly back, your flight is cancelled, then cancelled again the following day, and the day after that.

Are you really going to complain that you are staying 3 extra days in your vacation destination?!? :D

BL.
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Of course your hotel rooms were given to someone else and you are probably stuck in an airport in Iraq somewhere.
 
bradl said:
Depending..

DAL serves Australia. Say you were down there on a nice vacation, and then the day you fly back, your flight is cancelled, then cancelled again the following day, and the day after that.

Are you really going to complain that you are staying 3 extra days in your vacation destination?!? :D

BL.
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Well... that depends. Am I checking the airport every hour or two, in effect, flying standby, or did Delta say, "hey guys, this will be screwed up for 3 days, here's some hotel vouchers, come back Friday!"

For the first, I wouldn't care if we were in a snowstorm, and for the second, heck yeah!
 
cube said:
This is not that rare. What's worse, is that sometimes the runway is shorter than what's supposed to be for the plane.

Or how about landing on a taxiway instead of the runway?
Click to expand...

It's happened before for that specific airport at least once before- Northwest Airlines before they merged with Delta. It's one of those setups around the country were two airports sit in close proximity to each other. And for the most part, it's a gotcha, especially when runways are aligned in same direction. That is part of the corporate knowledge that most pilots know about, and it's even on the airport info sheet the pilots carry.

The danger is when doing a visual and there are clouds around. You are looking for an airport on the nose and there one is! However, it's 5 miles too close, and the other airport has not yet come into visual range. :oops: There is instrumentation that will tell you this, but some pilots go visual and forget the danger and forget to cross check. It can be dangerous, but in this case it's an Air Force base with a long runway, but there could be unexpected traffic a very serious danger, and obviously that airport did not clear you to land.

As far as what happens to pilot, depending on their backgrounds for getting into trouble, they could be fired, but more likely, training, a check ride, and possibly time off. :confused:
 
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