C-17 Mistakenly Lands at Wrong Airport

[flieger83]

I'm just wondering out loud...

"Students, the acronym is TIMS: Tune, Identify, Monitor, Select. Do this whenever approaching an unfamiliar field to ensure you have the correct runway selected, the proper navigation aids selected, and that you're not going to the wrong place."

<<UPT Briefing in T-37 phase...now T-6 phase...>>

And what was his HUD telling him/her????

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83

[JMS]

Originally Posted by LineInTheSand

Guess we should be thankful that these guys fly C-17s and not B-2s.


Wonder how many millions of dollars the bill will be for the tax payer to move it.... cause it aint taking off!

The news report I saw showed it taking off later on... picture perfect to my untrained eye. It did seem to use all the runway, and I assume it was empty. I'm still not understanding just how this can happen with all the beacons, electronics, etc. Kind of like pulling into the neighbor's driveway instead of your own... I guess it happens.

[Bullet]

Originally Posted by JMS

The news report I saw showed it taking off later on... picture perfect to my untrained eye. It did seem to use all the runway, and I assume it was empty.

C-17s are designed to take-off and land on assault landing strips. Landing on and taking off from a strip this short can be done. Challenging, but it can be done.

Originally Posted by JMS

I'm still not understanding just how this can happen with all the beacons, electronics, etc. Kind of like pulling into the neighbor's driveway instead of your own... I guess it happens.

Pretty obvious that the crew requested a visual approach, and being unfamiliar with the area ended up making this mistake. Visual approaches use different sets of rules for timing and separation between aircraft in the approach pattern, and are usually much faster for getting to the airfield and on the ground.

Even more speculation is that perhaps they selected to request a visual approach because they were in a hurry to get this guy, who was ON BOARD (!) to MacDill. Of course, that doesn't excuse not backing up their visual approach with appropriate Nav-aids.

One has to wonder what the conversation was on the back of that particular bird that day.... "Uh, Sir. You're going to be a little late for that meeting at the MacDill HQ. Why? Well, we're not really AT MacDill" Yes, Sir. The good news is we're only 4 miles away, so you'll get there eventually by staff car! So you got THAT going for ya!"

[AJM7680]

Originally Posted by JMS

The news report I saw showed it taking off later on... picture perfect to my untrained eye.

I certainly hope that the crew that flew it out was not the same crew as that landed it.

[AF6872]

Touch and Go But they landed. Big bad one. VFR didn't excues the wrong airfield. Can't see MacDill from altitude.

[Scratcher]

Originally Posted by AJM7680

I certainly hope that the crew that flew it out was not the same crew as that landed it.

I can assure you that it wasn't the same crew.

BTW - there were something like 18 crew on board according to the news article. Obviously, not all as part of the active crew but if you have ever flown a pilot or instructor pilot on board your aircraft as a passenger...well you can guess how much "help" you get.

[Scratcher]

http://www.tampabay.com/news/militar...anding/1241869

[AJM7680]

Originally Posted by Scratcher

I can assure you that it wasn't the same crew.

I don't know. Bad decisions sometimes happen in multiples, especially with a 4-star in back. "We'll just turn around, taxi back to the duty runway, and pretent this never happened." It is also not totally inconceivable that a duty officer in a command center somewhere became overly obsessed with getting the VIP to his destination. But, for everyone, I'm glad that it didn't happen that way.