Posted on 01/13/2014 9:00:53 AM PST by DJ MacWoW
Federal officials are investigating why a Southwest Airlines flight that was supposed to land at Branson Airport in southwest Missouri instead landed at another airport about 7 miles away that only had about half as much runway.
Southwest Airlines Flight 4013, carrying 124 passengers and five crew members, was scheduled to go from Chicago's Midway International Airport to Branson Airport, airline spokesman Brad Hawkins said Sunday in a statement. But the Boeing 737-700 landed at Taney County Airport, which also is known as M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
The thing about Southwest is they have one heck of a safety record. About the worst incident I recall is over-landing at Burbank, and crashing into a gas station off the end of the runway. Without researching it, I believe complacency to have been a prime factor. I suspect that’s true for this incident as well.
Geez.
Landing on the wrong parallel runway on the same airport is a BIG no-no.
Landing at the wrong airport. . .sheesh.
Not paying attention? Yacking instead of navigating, is my guess.
Capt and co-pilot will be lucky to just get a months pay docked and an extra check-ride/re-qual.
Landing at the wrong airport doesn’t mean they can’t fly.
It means they can’t navigate.
Being fired likely is in their future.
According to
http://www.airnav.com/airport/KPLK
They do have Jet-A so re-fueling won’t be a problem!
The runway is 3,738 feet which means they landed within 3,700 feet. Not bad for a loaded 737. The ESE end of the runway is right next to US 65 so that isn’t where the drop-off is but the airport does look like it is up on a hill. The elevation of the airport is 940 feet.
Also, from the same website.
Additional Remarks
A57-30 37:1 TO DSPLCD THLD.
A57-12 50:1 TO DSPLCD THLD.
- NO SAFETY/OVERRUN AREAS AT RY ENDS-LARGE DROP-OFFS. STEEP TERRAIN GRADIENTS ALONG RY PVMT EDGES.
- GA SVCS AVBL EAST END OF AIRFIELD.
- STUDENT TRAINING ACTIVITIES IN THE AREA.
- DEER ON & INVOF ARPT.
Just think if a student pilot was flying around the airport doing touch-and-goes and this 737 comes in by a straight-in approach. Then the deer on the runway would have been problem. Lastly, the drop-off on the WNW end.
Could be ATC was monitoring/controlling other flights and gave clearance to land (and the jet was approaching within 10-15miles at the time. The runway alignments are close, sort of, and after clearing to land the jet was handed over to the tower for a visual and the aircrew got lazy, locked onto the wrong runway/airport, and the tower was monitoring the flight vector (not paying attention to altitude) and controlled other jets.
Tower/ATC really have no direct fault here. It is the pilot(s) responsibility to fly their jet.
And their pilots have great landing skillz!
Aerial photo of runway showing drop-offs at either end.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/Clark_Taney_Co_Airport_6-1-09_by_KTrimble.jpg
The Airnav site offers this warning about the runway:
NO SAFETY/OVERRUN AREAS AT RY ENDS-LARGE DROP-OFFS. STEEP TERRAIN GRADIENTS ALONG RY PVMT EDGES.
“He’s going to hear about it every day for the rest of his career.”
Which will be rather short.
Those two pilots aren’t going to be able to live it down for a very, very long time.
I hate it when that happens.
I’ve lined up on the wrong strip at night many years ago in central Michigan. The tower guy was watching for my landing light. When he didn’t see it he asked me where I was. It took a second or two before I realized and apologized.
My excuse besides stupid was single pilot at night. Sometimes you just get a little complacent.
Looking at the pic I don’t see how he thought that was Branson.
I can understand some confusion at night. Sounds like the tower was conscientious.
Indeed. . .usually the word “complacent” is found in the mishap report. . .
Not that aviators are without fault, it’s just we hope our ‘clue’ bag fills up before our ‘luck’ bag empties.
He saved me from some major embarrassment.
The problem is that enroute flying is BORING. There are just times when your mind wanders. On the other hand single pilot IFR on a tight approach to minimums with a runway change uses 150% of your attention!
I imagine it is boring. It’s not like the scenery is particularly engaging.
I didn’t hear any passengers complaining —
After all they got a plane ride and a bus ride for the same price.
OK, I did it back in the late 60’s flying my Tri Pacer. On the way back to OR crossing over Texas, saw three airports in front. Called the first one for airport advisory(non controlled), no answer, so on to the next one, called, and got an adviory from the first one, “wind indicates runway 17”. Thinking that it was the second airport clearance, headed for it. on base noted that a 737 was landing in front of me, hmmmm, Then noted that the runway was 16, but hey, that was close to 17! So landed. Car came out said follow me, Got out of the plane, and the driver said the tower wants you to call. “What tower??? oh oh.” Went into the FBO, which had a class room, and the phone was on a post in the middle of a class - Called tower, explained that my wife gave me the wron frequency - it worked.
He got vector`d into a Polar Vortex
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