C-17 Mistakenly Lands at Wrong Airport

Stealth_81

Stealth_81

15-Year Member
Founding Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2006
Messages
3,998
C-17 Lands at Peter O. Knight Airport

We have passed this airport when leaving on cruises from the Port of Tampa. I guess you've got to give the guy some credit for stopping a C-17 on a 3400 ft. runway. What I really can't understand is how he mistook this airport for MacDill AFB across the Bay.

Stealth_81
 
Stealth_81 said:
C-17 Lands at Peter O. Knight Airport

We have passed this airport when leaving on cruises from the Port of Tampa. I guess you've got to give the guy some credit for stopping a C-17 on a 3400 ft. runway. What I really can't understand is how he mistook this airport for MacDill AFB across the Bay.

Stealth_81
Click to expand...
Davis Island Airport is only a few miles north...and I am told they appear to look similar When hubby was stationed there in the 80's a Delta plane landed at MacDill instead of Tampa International and they are opposite ends of the city..:eek: more than one small plane pilot ended up on the tarmac surrounded by 56th SPS in the 3+ years we lived there
 
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!
 
LineInTheSand said:
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!
Click to expand...
That pilot won't make that mistake again. I'm sure his desk will have plenty of runway...
 
bjkuds said:
Davis Island Airport is only a few miles north...and I am told they appear to look similar When hubby was stationed there in the 80's a Delta plane landed at MacDill instead of Tampa International and they are opposite ends of the city..:eek: more than one small plane pilot ended up on the tarmac surrounded by 56th SPS in the 3+ years we lived there
Click to expand...

I was sitting in a 4-ship getting ready to launch of of MacDill in the 80's...and we watched a B727 roll out on final and land at MacDill...and then he pushed the power up and did a touch-and-go and turned toward Tampa!!!

We had a great laugh and then the tower controller asked our lead: "Hawk Lead...does anyone in your flight know what DELTA stands for?"

"Negative..."

"Don't EVER Land There Again!"

It was a fun flight home! :thumb:

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
flieger83 said:
I was sitting in a 4-ship getting ready to launch of of MacDill in the 80's...and we watched a B727 roll out on final and land at MacDill...and then he pushed the power up and did a touch-and-go and turned toward Tampa!!!

We had a great laugh and then the tower controller asked our lead: "Hawk Lead...does anyone in your flight know what DELTA stands for?"

"Negative..."

"Don't EVER Land There Again!"

It was a fun flight home! :thumb:

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
Click to expand...

:shake::shake:
I cant imagine having the skills/talent/brains to fly... but I'm thinking the row of F16's visible on approach might make you re evaluate the decision.
 
The runways are oriented pretty similarly, but a 3400x100ft runway should look a bit different than an 11,000+ft runway. :confused:
 
I have to agree with bjkuds and raimius, not only those things, but seriously why didn't he question the proximity of the runway to a golf course?:shake:

Any pilot that served in the AF prior to being a busdriver in the sky would have immediately known golf course = AFB!
 
Pima said:
I have to agree with bjkuds and raimius, not only those things, but seriously why didn't he question the proximity of the runway to a golf course?:shake:

Any pilot that served in the AF prior to being a busdriver in the sky would have immediately known golf course = AFB!
Click to expand...

Umm.. I think in MacDill's case it is 2 golf courses :) At least the 2nd one was being planned when I was there:biggrin:
 
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
 
LineInTheSand said:
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!
Click to expand...

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.
 
JMS said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.

JMS said:
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.
Click to expand...

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 (:eek:!) 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" :redface: 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!" :thumb:
 
Touch and Go:biggrin: But they landed. Big bad one. VFR didn't excues the wrong airfield. Can't see MacDill from altitude.:thumbdown:
 
AJM7680 said:
I certainly hope that the crew that flew it out was not the same crew as that landed it.
Click to expand...

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 said:
I can assure you that it wasn't the same crew.
Click to expand...
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top