It's like Ted Kennedy had a pilot's license, except no one died.
Posted on 06/20/2004 10:34:40 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Airliner Lands at Air Force Base by Mistake, Passengers Told Not to Peek The Associated Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A Northwest Airlines flight that was headed to Rapid City, S.D., landed a few miles off course at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and passengers had to wait in the plane for more than three hours while their crew was interrogated. Passengers on Northwest Flight 1152, an Airbus A-319 from St. Paul, expected to be welcomed to Rapid City Regional Airport on Saturday, but after about five minutes they were told to close their window shades and not look out, said passenger Robert Morrell.
"He (the pilot) hemmed and he hawed and he said 'We have landed at an Air Force base a few miles from the Rapid City airport and now we are going to figure out how we're going to get from here to there,'" Morrell told the St. Paul Pioneer Press by cell phone during the delay Saturday.
Eventually, the captain and first officer were replaced by a different Northwest crew for the short hop to the right airport.
Northwest confirmed that the crew made an "unscheduled landing."
"The situation is under review and we have nothing further to add," said Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch. He would not identify the cockpit crew, or say if the pilot made an error.
Ellsworth controls all air space 40 miles around the base and clears landings at both the civilian airport and the base.
The city's airport runway is "just over the hill" from Ellsworth, and the Northwest crew had to descend through a layer of clouds, said a base spokeswoman, Lt. Christine Millette.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
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On the Net:
Ellsworth: http://www.ellsworth.af.mil/
Ooops!
Don't ask - don't tell....
They used to ask passengers to do the same thing when Continental Micronesia landed at Kwajelein. Don't think they do that anymore, but, for a while, we had some funky stuff there at the base.
Was Mr. MacGoo
Part of the crew????
Airbus A-319 (French plane) The Air Force should have shot it down.
How do you land at the wrong place?? Especially a base?
Good grief!
Ooops is right!
It's like Ted Kennedy had a pilot's license, except no one died.
I thought the planes were equipped with GPS navigation....
2 and 1/5! Pretty frightening thought!
Actually, I was driving by our local general aviation airport the other day and I saw a little plane come in very fast, touch down for a second, and bounce up and fly off again - in the direction of another airport about 30 miles from here.
Ooops! But you don't expect that on your commuter flight...
Well, somebody (air controllers and/or pilots) will get a well-deserved enema.
Sounds like the Air Force was conducting a secret "what if" scenerio. Alternatively, the pilot is a complete idiot.
Doesn't TACAN tell them what to do? Sheesh.
I would want to know the nationality of the pilot/copilot/navigator their backgrounds, their family background, ethnicity (yes!), then I would prosecute, convict and JAIL the usefull idiots!
What they did is covered by law. Maybe it is time we actually enforce our good laws?
the flight..."had to descend through a layer of clouds..." and the 2 airports are not too far apart.
Radar mix-up?
".... now muslim terrorists know they can land at an AFB no problemo "
Yes, you're absolutely right.
My father was in the AirForce for 20 years and this kind of thing happens more often than you'd think. This is the first time I've heard of it happening with a commercial aircraft though.
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