Jumbo jet mistakenly lands at tiny Kansas airport

[KK Lee 5]

Jumbo jet mistakenly lands at tiny Kansas airport


A Boeing 747 Dreamlifter cargo plane will attempt to take off from a minor airport in Kansas after it landed there by mistake.

The giant cargo jet was heading for McConnell air force base in Wichita but instead touched down at nearby Colonel James Jabara airport.


Airport officials believe the plane will be able to depart despite the much shorter runway at Jabara.

An attempt is scheduled for noon local time (18:00 GMT) on Thursday.

The aircraft normally needs a runway of 2,780m (9,119ft) to get airborne at maximum weight; Jabara's runway is only 1,860m long.

A tug was dispatched to the airport to turn around the giant cargo plane.

Brad Christopher of the Wichita Airport Authority told the Associated Press news agency the company that operates the aircraft had "assured us they've run all the engineering calculation and performance and the aircraft is very safe for a normal departure at its current weight and conditions here".


The Dreamlifter, which landed at Jabara on Wednesday evening, is a modified 747-400 passenger aeroplane, which can carry more cargo by volume than any aeroplane in the world, according to Boeing.

The aerospace company uses its fleet of four Dreamlifters to transport large assembled components of its 787 Dreamliner from suppliers around the world to the final assembly location in Washington state.

The City of Wichita tweeted that no one was injured and no property damage occurred when the plane landed.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25032380

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2]

Somebody's going to fly a desk after this - unless they apply the Asoh defence.

[MIR 2]

Here is the ATC recording:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fjPx_i2XIw#t=431

 

Airports which are closeby to each other and airports which has multiple paralel runways may lead to confusion.

A few years back, a pilot who was doing a round the world flight was heading to PEN from the north but was confused which is the correct airport upon descent because of BWH nearby. I hope with with the opening of KLIA2, there will be no confusion between RWY14R/32L and RWY15/33.

Edited November 21, 2013 by MIR

[Radzi 2]

I wonder what is the registration of the Dreamlifter involved.

 

One of the 4 Dreamlifter in existence is N718BA, which used to be 9M-MPA of MH.

[Radzi 2]

The Dreamlifter just took off from Jabara around 1917 UTC.

[flee 5]

I wonder what is the registration of the Dreamlifter involved.

 

One of the 4 Dreamlifter in existence is N718BA, which used to be 9M-MPA of MH.

It was N780BA:

 

More: http://avherald.com/h?article=46bcd7c5&opt=0

[Radzi 2]

 

The aircraft normally needs a runway of 2,780m (9,119ft) to get airborne at maximum weight; Jabara's runway is only 1,860m long

 

Funny. In this situation why even look at maximum weight. Minimum weight was the likely scenario.

[Arthur Van Straten 0]

At "the other forum" , Pprune member "pattern is full" wrote today:

 

"It is interesting that the approach plates for Jabara all display the three nearby airports susceptible to confusion.

 

http://flightaware.com/resources/air...DME+RWY+18/pdf

 

...whereas the plates for KIAB do NOT show the three airports that might be overflown on final, and could be confused for McConnell:

 

http://flightaware.com/resources/air...S)+RWY+19L/pdf

 

One wonders why they are depicted in the one case, but not in the other - and whether that will now change....

It never hurts to maintain a little rational paranoia when aviating. The Universe (through its minion, Murphy) is out to get you - if you don't maintain constant vigilance!"

 

I am not trying to minimise or play down this colossal mishap with red face oops moment but, as i said in another topic today, they are not the first ones and certainly not the last ones. And our Pprune friend has a small point.

 

@ Radzi, I think thats not what they ment, it says that at max weight you need 10,000 ft. Of course in this particular case one should not be talking max weight.

 

At post # 3 there is an ATC recording. Now, at time stamp 1.08 it gets funny when ATC at KIAB ask the crew if they reallky landed at Jabara.

The answer, "we think so". in a rather meek voice.

 

Apologies, just saw that my links do not work. go here instead fir the charts.

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/528264-boeing-747-dreamlifter-lands-wrong-airport-7.html

 

 

Cheers

A.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Arthur Van Straten

[Cire 0]

Surely there are devices out there that will lock on the airport's ID & location to the plane vis-vis to prevent such incidence of landing at the wrong airport. Perhaps there is a short-fall in the GPS system where its location proximity accuracy is just too wide? 8 miles different is still pretty far apart in this case.

[Suzanne Goh 0]

Toto... I have a feeling we ARE in Kansas!

 

 

(Wizard of oz fans will know this )

[Kenneth Chong WT 0]

Toto... I have a feeling we ARE in Kansas!

 

 

 

(Wizard of oz fans will know this )

There's no place like home...

Edited November 25, 2013 by Kenneth Chong WT