Huh? With that criteria ... ALL runways look the same in the dark (long and wide, except for this one ... it wasn't very long or wide)? How does anyone EVER land at the correct airport!*? :eek::eek:

The ATC recordings suggest he thought he was SOUTH of the airport ... what airport did he think he was at? DFW is somewhere south of there? It has a runway that's long and wide also?

Look at what the post he was responding to said. I ask if they had done an ocean crossing and he immediately began flinging poo in an overly defensive manner. Ridiculous.

Allow me to interject since I'm now a high risk candidate for landing at the wrong airport. In the past year, both the airplanes I currently fly (747-400 and c-17) have landed at the wrong airport. Both airplanes have "magenta lines" and a thousand ways to back up the approach. One of them has a HUD.

The c17 was being flown by a crew of all instructors (check airman equivalent)

The Atlas 747-400 crew by default is very senior (most junior captain is 12 years or so).

So what's our takeaway? It was a bad day, we've all experienced such incredible fatigue that we swear up and down we didn't do what we just did.

So there is some evidence to suggest that this was a fatigue related incident?
I know that fatigue is certainly a drum to beat in the industry to try and get out dated work rules changed/improved, but it seems as much as some jump to citing causes and it is often beaten on in the forums that we should let the investigation be conducted before spouting off causal factors, that citing fatigue is often an accepted practice without any evidence of such actually being the case.

Then the CAMI goes off on a wild goose chase to investigate OSA, which directly relates to fatigue, and transportation/safety related folks regulated by the DOT clamor about unfair practices.

Americans in general are a fatigued bunch.
Sleep Deprivation in America: Risks and Effects
Mistakes can be made by any aircrew.
They WILL be made by aircrew and targeting the blue threat/risk assessment and operational risk management seeks to reduce those risks.
At the same time, you have to be able to stand up and say 'I/we/they made a mistake' and look at how to prevent similar mistakes in the future. However this came about - in the end - they failed in their mission.

What are you talking about? We all know, and the FAA has told us that cargo crews do not get fatigued.

Of course. That was an old joke at my Navy squadron...."When two NIPs go flying, file a NOTAM."

You have in no way refuted the point made by "Larry in TN" and by me. Of course it is necessary to use all other cues to avoid landing at the wrong airport.

I flew or a Euro carrier that served, Newquay (EGHQ), a former B52 tech stop airport. The visual issues I had was the width of the runway adjusting the sight picture for the flare.

There seems to be an absurd fixation on this landing by some of the posters here.

A plane landed at the wrong airport, that's all. It could have been a lot better. It could have been a lot worse. But in the grand scheme of aviation incidents, it's really not that big of a deal. There were no injuries. No damage to the plane. There was no damage to other planes. No international violations. The plane spent less than a day in the wrong place and then continued on its way.

We expect the media to hype a story way out of proportion, but it seems like some pilots here are ramping this thing up like Geraldo Rivera on speed.

As has been pointed out in numerous posts here, this is not an isolated incident. Northwest, TWA, BAX, Continental, United, and Delta have all landed jets at wrong airports. Heck, even the U. S. Navy landed a jet on the wrong aircraft carrier. None of these pilots wanted to screw up and yet they all did despite all sorts of reasons that they shouldn't have.

It Happens. Get over it.

Did the crew screw up? Since they obviously didn't land at AAO on purpose, it sure seems like it. But there will be a chain of events that led up to this that will be uncovered by people with far more access than any of us will ever have and they will issue the report with recommendations. Until then, it is pointless to speculate.

And for those who think this could never happen to them, you may want to rethink your position on this. That kind of invincible mindset is foolish and potentially dangerous. Better to decide that it COULD happen to you and then implement procedures to make sure it doesn't ever happen.

8

Amen.........