Oops - TK 737 lands at wrong airport

[Denny Yen 0]

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/...ry-airport.html

 

Turkish 737 mistakenly lands at Georgian military airport

By Tolga Ozbek

 

Georgia's civil aviation administration has confirmed that a Turkish Airlines aircraft erroneously landed at a military airport in the country's capital today.

 

According to the administration the Boeing 737-800 - registered TC-JFT - landed 4nm southeast of Tbilisi International Airport, at the Vaziani base.

 

The military base, whose runway has a similar heading to Tbilisi's, was bombed during the Russian assault on Georgia in August last year.

 

"It's the fifth time in Georgia for a landing the wrong runway," says the Georgian administration in a statement.

 

The Turkish aircraft was carring 69 passengers.

 

It is unclear what type of approach the aircraft was conducting, and whether the choice of approach was influenced by findings from the Turkish Airlines 737-800 crash at Amsterdam in February.

[Hon Kit 3]

Luckly the military dint shoot the plane down.

[BC Tam 2]

O/T probably, but my first reaction was why on earth is TK flying a 737 instead !

[Tamizi Hj Tamby 1]

Aiyoh,how can this happen? Hmm,pelik jugak (That's weird).

 

Looking forward for more info about this incident.

[Mushrif A 3]

O/T probably, but my first reaction was why on earth is TK flying a 737 instead !

 

I guess that's why it landed away from where it was supposed to?

[Li Ren 2]

Wow,how could this happened in real life,I thought this can only happened in ''simming'' world

Edited April 9, 2009 by Li Ren

[Denny Yen 0]

TK = IATA code of Turkish Airlines

[Radzi 2]

O/T probably, but my first reaction was why on earth is TK flying a 737 instead !

 

O/T: When he becomes Captain TK, he will have to fly a B737 first...

 

Anyway, there are many places in the world where landing at the wrong airport is possible. For example, DXB and SHJ, also TPE and the military airfield beside it. Landing at the wrong runway is even more common when you have 2 parallel runways especially when they are side by side. For example we have to be very cautious when landing in SGN due to the proximity of the 2 runways.

 

 

 

[Denny Yen 0]

O/T: Just curiosity...is it true rwy at military airbase is not lighted, fighters and transports rely on HUDs nowadays?

[TK 0]

ha ha ha..

 

TK...

[Mushrif A 3]

TK = IATA code of Turkish Airlines

 

Of course we did know that...but that's not the point.

 

[Azreen 0]

O/T probably, but my first reaction was why on earth is TK flying a 737 instead !

 

 

Same thots exactly!!

[Hakan 2]

Captain who was involved that mistaken landing, has been resign from THY and requested his retirement. First Officer lost his captain promotion at least 1 year. (maybe 2 year).Investigation is continue still.

[Nik H. 3]

Wrong airport for landing is not uncommon. An airliner from a neighbouring country once did an approach into Brunei thinking it as Runway 02 BKI. I as at the holding point waiting for him to land. This happened years ago.

 

Wrong runway for landing has also occured but this is more common. Wrong runay take off is also not unheard off. You may remember the SQ Jumbo in Taipei.

[Fitri Shukri 0]

And I believe, for passengers, wrong terminal for check-in happens nearly everyday, what more since KUL has both LCCT and MTB which are very far apart and certainly not within walking distance, and this not including the confusion of KUL and SZB for ill-informed/miss-informed passengers.

 

Sorry OT

[Juergen Witte 0]

I still don´t get why they even touched down at the airbase ...

 

When looking out of the window they must recognize there´s no terminal, etc.

 

I simply can´t believe that a Star Annoyance member airline would let a flight go to a destination like Tbilisi without ensuring at least one cockpit crew member is familiar with that airport.

So, there´s no escape from that "incident" as they must have recognized being wrong !!!

 

 

P.S.: TK has a relatively high proportion of ex military pilots.

So, maybe the crew still had the "military airfields software" in they minds ... ?????

Edited April 11, 2009 by Juergen Witte

[Hakan 2]

Juergen, landing has been performed as "visual" to rwy 31L. (according by captain and airport authority report)

 

 

 

Georgia aviation authorities says that there were at least 4-5 events about to land wrong airport which is the same direction at near of Tbilisi airport.

 

Yes, cockpit crew has been mad big mistakes in such as fully technological 737NG aircraft with so many navigastion devices but we are curious what they were doing Air Traffic Controllers?

how to give landing clereance to any aircraft which is performing visual approach?

-when aircraft report runway in sight.

 

so Tower must be know were they are according to approachig runway 31L with position, radar or else.

 

unofficial news, one of passanger was opposite action leader against Georgia goverment and he was going to meeting to Tbilisi. According this news, controllers could give instructions to wrong runway. Just a rumour ofcourse.

 

For a long time, military pilots is the main soruce of airliners becouse there weren't civillian pilot school since 1988. Still we have only one university based active pilot school in Eskisehir Anadolu University. BEsides last 8 years so many private flightschools opened. Turkish Airlines is training so many civillian pilot to be airline pilot in THY since 1990 and they have own training academy last 4 years.So last 10-15 years military source pilots decreasing in total Turkish Airlners as percentage. Ofcourse it will not zero like as all countries becouse military pilots are experienced pilots for avaition even they are flying in single or twin engine jet fighters. This is the same in US, Germany, UK, France and the rest of so many countries.

 

Eventually, it was not suit to THY. It shouldn't be happend.

[Samuel Chy 0]

And I believe, for passengers, wrong terminal for check-in happens nearly everyday, what more since KUL has both LCCT and MTB which are very far apart and certainly not within walking distance, and this not including the confusion of KUL and SZB for ill-informed/miss-informed passengers.

 

Sorry OT

 

actually got once, my mum got mislead by the AK Office staff at Gaya Street! year 2002, before they switch to T2, their staff told my mum that they are switching to T2, but never mentioned the date! and my mum travel on early Sept (2 weeks before PMR exam), which is month before switching. 2 hours before flights, we proceed to the old T2, which looks very empty by the time, my dad say should be still too early to check-in, so we go back home. then later back to airport again, still the same, empty! then we only realize they still operating at T1, by the time we reach T1 already late for check-in, fortunately their counter staff kind enough, help my mum do the check-in. what a bad experience.

 

OT again. ;sorry:

[Simon 3]

What if the runway was closed for some activities??

[kaybin 0]

I still don´t get why they even touched down at the airbase ...

 

When looking out of the window they must recognize there´s no terminal, etc.

 

I simply can´t believe that a Star Annoyance member airline would let a flight go to a destination like Tbilisi without ensuring at least one cockpit crew member is familiar with that airport.

So, there´s no escape from that "incident" as they must have recognized being wrong !!!

 

 

P.S.: TK has a relatively high proportion of ex military pilots.

So, maybe the crew still had the "military airfields software" in they minds ... ?????

 

I just tried landing there in the dark, notice that the military airport is quite some distance ahead from the intended airport. If the pilot has pay attention to the DME and altitude, it is almost impossible to mistaken the airport.

[Juergen Witte 0]

I just tried landing there in the dark, notice that the military airport is quite some distance ahead from the intended airport. If the pilot has pay attention to the DME and altitude, it is almost impossible to mistaken the airport.

 

 

That is exactly what i was thinking ...

Next to this the taxiway arrangement at the military airport is totally different and can easily be recognized as a military one !!! ( as can be seen on the above photo ).

Also the approach chart for TBS clearly highlights not to mistake the military airport instead of TBS !

 

At least one of the cockpit crew has not done his job to the regulations by familiarizing with the approach and reading the approach card properly. Otherwise he should have been alerted by the - clearly visible - remark on the approach map !!!

[Juergen Witte 0]

Juergen, landing has been performed as "visual" to rwy 31L. (according by captain and airport authority report)

 

Yes, cockpit crew has been mad big mistakes in such as fully technological 737NG aircraft with so many navigastion devices but we are curious what they were doing Air Traffic Controllers?

how to give landing clereance to any aircraft which is performing visual approach?

-when aircraft report runway in sight.

 

so Tower must be know were they are according to approachig runway 31L with position, radar or else.

 

 

Maybe they were granted a straight-in right away from transition altitude because no other traffic was around ... ???

Transition altitude for TBS is FL90 (9000 feet).

When the aircraft reaches transition altitude it may be well to far away to be recognized by TBS tower.

Next to this radar aid may be limited due to surrounding mountains or even non existent ...

 

If a cockpit crew confirms "runway in sight" the tower crew (at TBS) may not know if the cockpit crew has the right runway in mind due to the proximity of both airports ... !!!

[Hakan 2]

yes but generally in visual landing; aircraft is generally fully landing configuration with flaps, landing gears down and landing lights are open. So airplane should be 8nm almost. If they are going to wrong runway and if they reported the same situation, it means they are 16-18nm away from Tbilisi. as far as I know, tower must be checked and recognized approaching aircraft with eye contact or with binoculars. (landing was in day time)

 

You are right, I don't know there are radar service or not As you said that approach service is not meaning that is giving with radar service (PSR-SSR).

 

Ofcourse the big guilty is in cockpit crew, they could be missed approach easly when they recognized wrong airport. The rest of guilty can be goes to tower crew that they didn't watch the traffic.

 

I'm waiting official news from THY or news from insider friends, what is truth or reasons.

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2]

Well, at least they landed in the same country. I remember reading in Flight Intl back in the 90s about a Northwest plane which landed in Brussels instead of the intended destination Frankfurt because of ATC fault. Anyone have any clues on this incident? I think it was in 1995 or 1996. And I believe there's another Northwest incident in 2004 where they landed at Ellsworth AFB rather than the commercial airport. So, it's more common than you think, landing at the wrong airport.

Edited April 12, 2009 by Mohd Suhaimi Fariz