British holiday jet lands in wrong place

I recall seeing a photo in a newspaper of a Dan Air HS748 landing at a disused WW2 airfield a few years ago.

Wasn’t there a case (in if I recall the late 80s) of an NWA flight to Frankfurt landing at Brussels in error. Not so much as landing on a taxiway, the flight crew managed to land in the wrong country

Mistakes happen. I once landed at Cambridge thinking it was Duxford.

Yes, it happens a lot.

Last time we went into Abbeville we landed on the taxiway instead of the runway (both grass). And I have completely missed the grass strip at Kemble and landed between it and the hard. That was caused by uncompleted mowing making the grass strip harder to discern.

😮

Moggy

anyone remember the BA 1-11 that landed at the wrong Belfast airport
and i don’t mean the City one!!!!

That was proved to be false. The B-52 was unable to make the necessary manoeuvres to line-up on Farnborough. No navigational ****-ups involved.

However, the F-111s at Kinloss instead of Lossiemouth, the Sabena 737 at Woodford instead of Manchester, the list is long and embarrassing.

One of the more recent ones must be the fly in from the USAF B52 bomber which was about to commence it’s FArnborough INternational Air display at BLackbushe aerodrome.
Even more amazing when you think that this is a nuclear capable bomber. If nuclear war ever breaks out I hope the yanks get to find the right targets!!
I have also heard of a Sabena Boeing 737 landing at BAE Woodford instead of Manchester, can anyone throw any more light on this one?

Maybe I am plumb stupid but is this a serious incident or not?

Jay, as it says in the article, there were no vehicles etc on the taxiway at the time. Imagine if a service vehicle had been cleared onto the taxiway at the wrong moment. 😮

Mistakes happen. I once landed at Cambridge thinking it was Duxford.

When I finally got to Duxford (shamefaced) ATC told me not to feel too dumb as a few years before a USAF F4 was to do a low-level, high-speed flypast at Duxford at an air day. The pilot made the same mistake I did and went for Cambridge, blatting past the tower at just under the speed of sound. (At that speed and height it is forgivable, I think.)

Pam Am 707 at Northolt airport was one good example.

happened just before I arrived there, great source of amusement but quite a problem to deal with and then get rid of it as RAF Northolt’s runway is quite short. I was told that the problem was due to two gasometers being labelled NH and LH and the pilot picked up on the wrong one.
Conversation went something along the lines of:
707 pilot “Heathrow, Clipper xx is down”
LHR “Where?”
RAF Northolt “Hello Heathrow, are you looking for a 707?”

Northolt’s Air Movements section was very small being geared to VIP/ODV flights and small civilian exec movements. Customs and Immigration, and buses! , were brought over from Heathrow. The 707 had to be pretty much stripped internally to get the weight down and absolute minimum fuel. The 707 when ready was pushed to the end of the runway so the mainwheels were just on the concrete. As soon as Heathrow were ready the 707 took off, did a quick ‘U’ turn and landed at Heathrow.
I was told all this with gusto by the guys on Northolt’s VAS who were involved.

While I was there we had a Tiger Moth land out of the fog as the pilot was lost…

Amazingly that in the 1980s was a waiting to happen …

Amazingly that in the 1980s was a waiting to happen mistake/accident.

The A4 – Great West Road and finals in to LHR coming in near parallel between Perivale and Hounslow West and now further on the Tube.

In those days A4 – dual carriageway – amber street lights hung either side of central reservation lampstandards – in bad weather – do I need to say the rest.

A4 certainly not a taxiway (back up runway) – can you imagine the carnage and loss of life if that mistake had become a real tragedy.

I am hoping that this story that I opened the thread with is bad or speculative journalism and that the taxiway was an authorised line up and landing. It is only Yahoo and the Metro (hah) that I can find a reference to this story with the emphasis on the word ‘story’ (maybe a ‘fairy story’)

If not the carnage could have been also very serious if another aircraft used or crossed the taxiway at the wrong moment.

If it is coincidental luck – then a roasting and suspension is in order as they are probably a British Flight Crew who should know better to take chances with a landing line up.

If this report is true when we have all the modern instruments in cockpit and in/with ATC on the ground and this sort of ‘sh.t’ happens. It isn’t an uninhabited island they landed on.:rolleyes:

i am sure a flight crew in the 80s were suspended for lining up to land on the A4 at Heathrow!!!!!!

I think when the AKL runway was being gradually resurfaced, the taxiway was used for operations. Don’t quote me on that though :p

Maybe I am plumb stupid but is this a serious incident or not?

Maybe I am plumb stupid but is this a serious incident or not?

Are taxiways surfaced routinely to take a landing in an emergency?
And was this a non emergency (bl..dy stupid mistake) coincidence that the taxiway was suitable and fortunately there were no injuries.

I have been told in some airports taxiways are specially re-surfaced to provide an alternative temporary runway if the main runway is being repaired/re-surfaced.

The fact that there have been no comments on this incident means either that this is commonplace or no one is interested.Great so all the training, licensing and type ratings of skilled pilots are useless “as land anywhere policy” applies.

What about ATC, runway markers in contrast to taxiway markers was the pilot oblivious to these things?

Oh well, at least it landed at the right airport. It’s well documented on this and other forums of aircraft landing at the wrong airports or even wrong countries. Pam Am 707 at Northolt airport was one good example.