Posted on 01/12/2014 11:20:27 PM PST by zipper
"...scheduled to fly to Dallas with a stop in Branson, Missouri (BKG) but instead, the aircraft touched down at Taney County Airport (PLK), 8.6 miles away from its intermediate stop"
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
And I am saying they go together. I think finding the right airport is a generally accepted requirement for competence.
And since there is only one runway where they landed, and it was about half what they expected (at the other airport) then it's pretty important.
Not to mention I seriously doubt Southwest can dispatch to a runway only a little over 3,700 feet long.
Yes, a C-17 landed close to Tampa at a small airport, a similar screw-up. They also had only a few feet remaining by the time they stopped. The crew was replaced and the C-17 was flown out a few hours later, much to the embarrassment of the AF.
Very true. 30 degrees flaps is standard. I’m sure that is what they were running on the landing at this airport.
I don’t understand why people are flipping out about this especially getting the aircraft out of that airport.
As long as they are empty of passengers and cargo, they have a good headwind (not difficult in the plains), density altitude is good, and loaded with minimal fuel they should be be able to a roll out and take off well before the hitting the numbers at the other end of the runway.
There are three rules when flying that a pilot always needs to keep in mind at all times.
#1) Aviate - fly your airplane within its limits and within the FAR rules.
#2) Navigate - get to your destination correctly and on time.
#3) Communicate - Applies to your on-board crew and to those on the ground.
He got #2 wrong but it’s better than screwing up #1 and crashing.
JATO
I guess if you can’t get #2 right, #3 is flat out?
Are there no air controllers associated with these flights any more?
Yes, there are air traffic controllers that are watching and guiding the flights but this one slipped through the cracks.
In the future airplanes will be guided by an on-board flight computer only and the air traffic control system will be completely automated.
I wonder what the tower said when they cleared the flight to land but it never appeared...:^)
The correct airport had a tower, the one they landed at did not. It could have scared the **** out of any local pilots having a 737 appear on what was probably a straight in approach!
The irony is that SWA is eliminating Branson from their route structure this year, along with Key West and Jackson, Mississippi.
As an aside, it’s interesting that the country’s most savvy airline is eliminating two popular tourist attractions in this “recovering” economy.
But, hey, two more jobs have just been created.
You have it exactly correct. We have the same situation with the truck profession. It is a crime what is expected of truckers. Impossibly long hours every day for far too little pay.
Good one. It ain’t how short the runway is that is at issue. Its the inability to find the correct airport that is at issue.
You would think that after being “cleared to land on runway three-two” the PIC would have aborted the landing when he saw the “30” at the end of PLK.
I almost did the same thing many years ago approaching Ellenville (N89) instead of Wurtsboro (N82) but broke it off a half-mile out.
And yet the US carriers are safer than they’ve ever been. How to explain that with the level of incompetence in today’s cockpits? /s/
Probably something similar to what I said when it happened to me, when I worked in a tower in Vietnam.
“most all airline pilots were former Navy or AF pilots, and paid at a sufficient level for their work”
Soooo true! I am a Navy jet pilot (O-5) who is current as an instructor in the T-45. I can’t get hired by the airlines. The HR folks have taken over the hiring part for the airlines and it is so touchy feely, guys like me have difficulty passing the strange psych tests (at least that is what I figure I am doing wrong).
As a matter of fact, I have been trying to retire the past six months, but I can’t get hired by anyone. Walmart corporate called, but I have to start out as a cashier.....too funny.....I have a USNA degree and an MBA, but the job market is so terrible, Walmart is the only callback out of 50 applications.
What? I'd give anything to be Asian or Black right now as a pilot. It sucks being a white, middle aged, pilot trying to retire from the military and enter the airlines. I'd be hired today.
They could retrofit a few JATO units to be on the safe side.
What about the trucking companies know their big rig(s) went off course, how can this happen?
My mother’s uncle recited this story. During WW2, he was on a bomber flying from somewhere in Texas to Newark NJ. There was light fog. The pilot asked the tower if they were clear to land at Newark. The tower said yes but we don’t hear you. (no radar then). The pilot said they would see the runway lights ahead. So, the tower told them, OK, it is clear to land, there are no other aircraft but we still don’t hear you.
As they were decending, my wife’s uncle started screaming to the pilot: PUll Up PULL up, it is the George Washington Bridge (maybe Cristi’s father had the lanes open?). They barely missed putting the plane into the bridge which would have been near the time a B25 crashed into the Empire State Building. So went his brush with fame.
That is typical these days. I’m sure you have tried the major freight carriers as well.
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