Boeing 747 lands at wrong airport....

[A930Rocket]

Somebody is in hot water....

Boeing 747 mistakenly lands at small Kansas airport
Nov 21, 2013 5:01 AM EST
A Boeing 747 jumbo jet mistakenly landed a tiny airport in Wichita, Kansas late Wednesday, raising questions about whether or not the plane will be able to take off.

KAKE.com reports that the jet used to haul 787 Dreamliner parts landed at Jabara Airport instead of its intended destination of McConnell Air Force Base.

A Boeing spokesman confirmed to The Wall Street Journal in a statement that the plane had landed on the 6,101-foot long runway and that "we are working to determine next steps."

Emergency crews in Wichita were not sent to the airport and no injuries or property damage were reported, KAKE.com reported. Boeing has reportedly dispatched a tug to turn the jet around.

Officials tell Fox News that the FAA is currently investigating the situation and findings will be released in the coming weeks.

[asphaltgambler]

I said LEFT..............................The other left dummy

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Normy?

[pavulon]

If it's empty and light on fuel in cold temps and departing into a nice wind the interweb sources have it making it out ok.

[romad]

sleep apnea or navy pilots....air force or guard pilots would never landed at an airport that had no O club

[onewhippedpuppy]

How did I miss this? I live about a mile from Jabara.

In defense of the pilots, Jabara and McConnell AFB are essentially aligned on a common heading and have N-S oriented runways. Though I don't know how you confuse a small uncontrolled business aviation airport with a very large air force base.

[Tervuren]

Time to invent rocket assisted take off 747's.

[red-beard]

Get one of the Doolittle Raiders in the pilot seat. Bet they could get that thing in the air...

[onewhippedpuppy]

I had to go look it up locally, this is actually the 747 Dreamlifter, a modified 747 used to carry 787 nose fuselage sections from Spirit Aerosystems, which is adjacent to McConnel AFB. They will be helped by the weather later today, a cold front is moving through which will bring much colder temps and a strong N wind.



Dreamlifter lands at Jabara Airport | Wichita Eagle

[masraum]

[widebody911]

Pilot "This runway isn't very long"

Co-Pilot "Yeah, but it sure is wide"

[Don Plumley]

Doh!

Wichita's KWCH-TV says that a recording of the conversation between the pilots and controllers shows the jet was cleared to land at McConnell. But minutes later, one of the pilots can be heard saying "ahh .... we just landed at the other airport."

[GH85Carrera]

I bet someone is gonna get fired.

[Jeff Higgins]

This thing is leased to and operated by Atlas Air. They have another crew there already, who will fly it out today.

[ted]

Kinda shocking that the air traffic controllers, radar or both control towers did not correct the pilot.
Lack of awareness on the part of everyone concerned.

One night while working in a Navy control tower I cleared a Navy A6 to land on a Navy 9,000 runway.
The A6 pilot got confused and was late to arrive...
So I called the control tower at the civilian airport 4 miles away and asked if they had seen the A6?
The reply was yes, he's on short final to a 4,000 foot runway.
So before he landed I told the A6 pilot to go around and got him to land at the right airport.
It was long ago in the Navy so no paper work.
Pilot visited the control tower next night with 2 bottles of Jack in black whiskey.

[BRPORSCHE]

Please let there be video of the takeoff! Any idea if it has any 787 parts onboard?

Edit: Just finished reading the transcript. Pretty comical. Hope they get this sorted out though.

G: Giant 4241 heavy, the 747 Dreamlifter

M: Mc Connell Tower, multiple voices, not sure which is which.

G: Good evening Mc Connell Tower, Giant 4241 heavy is on the bit.. arr... GPS... RNAV GPS approach 19 left
M: Giant 4241 heavy, Mc Connell Tower, wheels down runway 19 left, wind 140 at 4, cleared to land
G: Clear to land runway 19 left, wheels down, Giant 4241 heavy
M: Giant 4241 heavy [...] down
G: Giant 4241, go ahead
M: Giant 4241, [...] down and expect mid field turnoff at the double
G: Giant 1440... 4241 we'll get back to here you momentarily, we're not on the approach
M: Giant 4241 heavy, [the final?] is 9 miles south of you
G: [...] we just landed at the other airport [...], Giant 4241
M: Giant 4241 heavy, Mc Connell, talk
G: Ah yes sir, we got a... Uh, apparently we've landed at B E C
M: Giant 4241 heavy verify, you're on the ground at BEC airport
G: We think so
M: Giant 4241 heavy, Mc Connell Tower, verify you are full stopped and landing stopped at BEC airport?
G: Affirmative
M: Giant 4241 heavy, Mc Connell Tower, are you able to make an approach, departure from that airport
direct to Mc Connell
G: Tower we're working on those details
M: Roger
G: And Mc Connell Tower, Giant 4241 heavy
M: Giant 4241 heavy, Mc Connell Tower
G: Yes sir, do you have a quick... is there a tower frequency here? For Beech?
M: Giant 4241 heavy, Beech tower is actually closed at this time
G: Okay. Is there a Unicom frequency?
M: Giant 4241 heavy, stand by
G: And one more thing, do you have the coordinates for this, for the airport?
M: Giant 4241 heavy, stand by on that
M: Giant 4241 heavy, I have the coordinates, when ready to copy
G: Tower ready, go ahead
M: Beech is Kilo Bravo Echo Charlie, North 3 7 degrees 41 point 6 4, West 97 degrees 1 2 point 9 0
G: Okay, lemme read those back. North 3 7 4 1 6 4?
M: Affirmative
G: Okay, then East 9 2 1 2 9 uh zero?
M: West, 9 7 degrees 1 2 point 9 0
G: Sorry about that, can't read my own handwriting, West 9 2 1 2 decimal 9 0
M: West 9 7 1 2 deck 9 0
G: Okay, 9 7 1 2 decimal 9 0
G: All right, here's the coordinates we're showing currently for us: North 3 7 4 4 decimal 4, West 0 9 7 1 3
decimal 3
M: Giant 4241 heavy, roger
M: Giant 4241 heavy, did you do a circle around the airport and then land, or did you make it straight in?
G: Straight in, sir
M: Giant 4241 heavy, roger
M: Giant 4241 heavy, can you say your (???)
M: Giant 4241 heavy, from the target we saw on the radar scope, you were overshot, the target was
overshot at (???) airport, approximately 8 miles nort of Mc Connell airport, Unicom frequency is 1 2 3 point
7, say again 1 2 3 point 7
G: All right, this gentleman is giving us a frequency, we're going to try it out, 1 2 3 point 7 as well
G: Mc Connell tower, Giant 4241
M: Giant 4241 heavy, in contact
G: Yes sir, we're in contact with the company right now, we'll analyze our performance status
M: Giant 4241 heavy, roger
M: Giant 4241 heavy, affirm you know at which airport you are
G: Well we think we have a pretty good code, let me ask you this, how many airports directly to the
south of 19, uh 019 are there?
M: Giant 4241 heavy, you're currently north of Mc Connell, and three along the glidepath
G: (Background: Sorry man go ahead, something else.) We are showing about six miles north of you
M: Copy, six miles north
M: Giant 4241 heavy, affirmative, right now we just try to figure that
G: Okay sir
G: Tower, we just had a twin engine aircraft, turboprop aircraft go over the top of us
M: Giant 4241 heavy, roger, it appears you are (???)
G: Say again
M: Giant 4241 heavy, we saw the plane on the radar and it appears you are at Jabara airport
G: Say the name again
M: Jabara
G: Jabarrow?
M: Giant 4241 heavy, that's J A A R R A
G: Okay, all right, copy that
G: Okay we also show we are just short, about a mile short of Warren(?) now
M: Giant 4241 heavy, roger, yes, that's Jabara
G: And Mc Connell Tower, Giant 4241
M: Giant 4241 heavy, contact
G: Yes sir, looks like we do confirm it is Jabara
M: Giant 4241 heavy, roger

[BRPORSCHE]

They have already booked the flight.

Flight time: 8 minutes. Ha.

Atlas Air (5Y) #4241

[sammyg2]

Captain Ron: Besides, if we get lost, we pull in somewhere and ask directions.


Caroline Harvey: Captain Ron, I was wondering. Are we going to be going to any more 'human' type places?
Captain Ron: Well, you heard of St. Croix?
Caroline Harvey: Yeah.
Captain Ron: We're going to the island just to the left of it.
Caroline Harvey: What's it called?
Captain Ron: Ted's.

[ted]

Lucky the runway and taxiway surfaces at the wrong airport appear to be able to handle the weight of the heavy jet...
Not to mention the additional wing span clearances required for it as well.

No one died or landed wrong airport or wheels up on my watch.

[sailchef]

Live video of takeoff

Dreamlifter to take off from Jabara after mistaken landing | Local News - Home