ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) — A Northwest Airlines flight that was headed to Rapid City, South Dakota, landed a few miles off course at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and passengers had to wait in the plane for more than three hours while their crew was interrogated.
Passengers on Northwest Flight 1152, an Airbus A-319 from St. Paul, expected to be welcomed to Rapid City Regional Airport on Saturday, but after about five minutes they were told to close their window shades and not look out, said passenger Robert Morrell.
“He (the pilot) hemmed and he hawed and he said ‘We have landed at an Air Force base a few miles from the Rapid City airport and now we are going to figure out how we’re going to get from here to there,”‘ Morrell told the St. Paul Pioneer Press by cell phone during the delay Saturday.
Eventually, the captain and first officer were replaced by a different Northwest crew for the short hop to the right airport.
Northwest confirmed that the crew made an “unscheduled landing.”
“The situation is under review and we have nothing further to add,” said Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch. He would not identify the cockpit crew, or say if the pilot made an error.
Ellsworth controls all air space 40 miles around the base and clears landings at both the civilian airport and the base.
The city’s airport runway is “just over the hill” from Ellsworth, and the Northwest crew had to descend through a layer of clouds, said a base spokeswoman, Lt. Christine Millette.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
I think that’s a big OOPS!
By: skycruiser - 24th June 2004 at 03:49
In my company, all visual approaches should be backed up with an ILS etc as a form of identification. With the correct arrival and approach plates in front of them and the correct NAV aids tuned I find it a little lax that this happened. But hey, we are all human and mistakes do happen.
What about the security at the air force bases?? A plane makes an approach and landing without permission. Some heads will roll.
😮
By: TTP - 23rd June 2004 at 03:10
There are quite a few airports in the States that can cause this to happen. Two that come to mind are Savannah international, and Hunter Army Airfield, the other is Biggs Army Air field and El paso International…..You ask how this can happen, quite easily..
I was flying a spec-ops mission on NVG’s it was very intence and alot of action going on for a couple of hours…all night flying by the way..when the mission was completed, off came the NVG’s and we had the nav give us vectors to Hunter AAF…I saw the runway and called visual, everyone on the crew was relaxing after the op, and luckily I dialed in the ILS freq and it wasn’t corresponding to what I saw outside..I quickly figured it out and turned slightly to my right and set up for the approach to Hunter (I was looking at Savahnna Int!!! I don’t think anybody on the crew knew what we almost did, since we were so burned out from the mission….a close call
There but for the grace of God go I
TTP
By: atc pal - 23rd June 2004 at 00:59
A few years ago two Danish F-16’s landed at Brize Norton(?) instead of Fairford. A quick taxi and take off and they made it to the show.
Were the runway “numbers” the same? (at Ellsworth/Rapid City)
Ja, I believe there are signs at USAF bases saying something like:
“Use of deadly force authorized”. In this day and age I’m afraid the “Air Force” has reserved the “right” to do much worse to people – idiots or not. 😉
By: Ja Worsley - 22nd June 2004 at 22:42
Now if this was 80 years ago I could understand it, but not today, and the Air Force being idiots like they are had no right to treat people as such!
By: Whiskey Delta - 22nd June 2004 at 21:58
Suspended? I’m sure they’ll be back flying after a slap on the wrist and a trip back through the simulator.
By: TWA302 - 22nd June 2004 at 12:46
Does anyone know what consequences this sort mishap by the crew will bring
Will they be given a severe reprimand, suspension, or dismissed
They have been suspended…..Just got it from the wires
By: thesaint - 22nd June 2004 at 12:18
The FRA-BRU incident was quite a few year’s ago & it happened the other way round,the aircraft was destined for FRA but landed at BRU instead.
Amazingly it also involved Northwest Airlines with a DC-10.
I’m flying Northwest in November LGW-DTW-MIA…..MIA-MSP-LGW, i hope they get it right then!!!!!!!!!.
By: steve rowell - 22nd June 2004 at 07:22
Does anyone know what consequences this sort mishap by the crew will bring
Will they be given a severe reprimand, suspension, or dismissed
By: Whiskey Delta - 22nd June 2004 at 03:00
WD- I believe the pilot landed at an AFB a few miles south of his destination of Corpus Christi. this was about 10 years ago.
That would be understandable. There are quite a few airports near each other down there all with the same approach controller.
By: KabirT - 22nd June 2004 at 02:17
Something like this happened in India, a Saudi B747 landed at an AFB instead of Madras Airport, and that AFB runway was not even capable of handling 747s.
By: starjet - 22nd June 2004 at 02:13
WD- I believe the pilot landed at an AFB a few miles south of his destination of Corpus Christi. this was about 10 years ago.
By: Whoops - 22nd June 2004 at 01:37
Any chance of pulling the same trick at the Area 51 airfield? 😀
It would have to be cloudy around there first, and I don’t believe that happens often in that region 😎
By: MontyP - 21st June 2004 at 23:24
Its happened at Aldergrove a few times when aircraft landed at a disused USAAF airfield, Langford Lodge. Its 3 miles southwest of Aldergrove with nearly the same runway layout. I think it was a Dan Air 748 first, then an Aviaca DC-9 and most recently a Citation. The charts have a warning on them now.
Langford Lodge is home to Martin Baker and a B-200 flies into it a few time a year with Martin Baker staff. Also it is/was home to the Ulser Aviation Society who now have to leave due to insurance costs
By: frankvw - 21st June 2004 at 22:26
Pan Am 707 has landed at Northolt instead of LHR and a Northwest DC10 landed at FRA instead of BRU once too.
FRA instead of BRU ??? Were they on drugs? There is nearly 1 hour between both airports !
By: GLAsgow - 21st June 2004 at 21:36
This happened not to long ago when a flight from Barcelona to Glasgow was sent to Cardiff.
By: ACA345 - 21st June 2004 at 19:35
Wow, a mistake no pilot wants to make.
In regards to how this happened, I read that the pilot was given permission for a visual approach (some sketchy info at this point); hence, the assumption that AFB’s runway was the one he was supposed to be landing on. But it does not make sense with the cloud layers and all. Sorry, I not an expert in this realm. Maybe some of the pilots can give their expertise.
By: Mark L - 21st June 2004 at 18:20
Pan Am 707 has landed at Northolt instead of LHR and a Northwest DC10 landed at FRA instead of BRU once too.
By: tonyosborne - 21st June 2004 at 18:12
Airliners used to regularly make erroneous approaches for RAF St Athan in South Wales, one almost resulted in a serious incident when a Transwede MD-87 was within a few hundred feet of touching down.
The problem was that the approach into Cardiff-Wales was curved, and the first large piece of concrete pilots would encounter would normally be the airbase.
By: Pablo - 21st June 2004 at 17:37
This reminds me of when a Soviet plane accidentally landed at BAe Warton – I think it intended to land at Blackpool or Liverpool (not sure which). This was probably about 12 years ago though.
By: Hand87_5 - 21st June 2004 at 17:35
How can something like this happen?
Obviously, an aircraft makes contact with the airport a short while before it actually touches down. When speaking to the control tower, you’d have expected somebody to point out that they weren’t expected at that particular airport.
An Egyptian made a wrong landing 10 years ago. He missed ORY’s runway and landed at Bretigny test airfield which is located 5 miles more south!!!
Very professional ! . I really wonder how such a thing can happen.
ATC might see it on the radar.
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June 21, 2004 at 2:09 pm