Southwest flight lands at wrong Missouri airport

Associated Press ^ | Jan 13, 2014 11:35 AM (ET) | JIM SALTER

[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.

[DJ MacWoW]

No comment.

[cuban leaf]

I was on I-405 driving by Renton Washington one day and wondered why a large commercial jetliner was lining up to land at Renton field. Suddenly it took a hard left and lined up for Boeing Field. ;-)

I think this sort of thing happens a lot.

[Don Corleone]

Example of why cockpit resource management and crew cooperation is absolutely essential. In short....No excuse sir! That will cost the Capt at least a months pay and the 1st officer too. Also they will probably be put on a year of mandatory quarterly performance checks both in flight and in the simulator. It is an understatement to say that the company management was displeased.

[Abathar]

I would love to have seen the pilots face when he figured out what he did.

It’s okay though, Fedex will still hire him now...

[Tupelo]

Hey, they all look alike from 30,000 feet.

[Uncle Chip]

The pilot was just testing his emergency landing skills —

He passed.

[edcoil]

I know we have a few throttle jockeys here so when the pilot checked in to land and the tower was not expecting them, why now just re-direct the flight to the proper airport?

[Vigilanteman]

Wall Street is NOT amused.

Southwest Airlines (LUV) is down 18 cents per share today, but is up 44% since October 1.

[DJ MacWoW]

The article says the pilot was talking to Branson and they cleared him to land, so he did. lol

[BitWielder1]

Is this a case of: "I don't care what the GPS says, I can see the airport right there."

[Dan(9698)]

He may have been talking to the right tower, but looking at the wrong runway.

They are only 7 miles apart.

[DJ MacWoW]

LOL!!!

[Zhang Fei]

Southwest flies to and from Chicago, Houston and Dallas out of the Branson Airport, Bourk said. But that will end in June. Southwest announced last month it was dropping service in Branson, Key West, Fla., and Jackson, Miss. The airline said it can't make money serving the smaller markets.

That's an interesting comment. I thought LUV made money from serving the smaller markets. I guess there are exceptions to that rule.

[bergmeid]

Exactly.....

Didn’t he get handed off from Center to the appropriate tower frequency and didn’t anyone clear him to land on runway xyz? Were both pilots AND ATC asleep?

[rhinohunter]

Well, as Rick Perry would say:
Oops!

[Zhang Fei]

Southwest brought in another plane and passengers flying on to Love Fiend in Dallas departed around 10 p.m., Bourke said.

[Nifster]

my thought too…like the folks who end up in the drink because the GPS voice told them to turn

[DJ MacWoW]

I saw that too. LOL

[DJ MacWoW]

Apparently the author and the pilot are related.

[IamConservative]

Is this a case of: "I don't care what the GPS says, I can see the airport right there."

Funny GSP story. Wife and I were driving to Natural Bridge, VA. We had never been there and didn't have a map, so we followed the GPS navigator. We took every turn, Navigator was happy; but it was clear we were leaving the beaten path. Navigator says something like "Turn into the parking lot on your right." There was the nicest hayfield with an older gentleman mowing hay you'd ever seen. Right out on Norman Rockwell. Turns out we were about 15 miles south and east on Natural Bridge. GPS map was just wrong..