NWA Lands At Wrong Airport
Ever see those commercials for a leading low-cost carrier where
someone does something stupid and the announcer asks, "Do you
suddenly wish you were somewhere else?"
Imagine if you will, then, the angst of the flight crew aboard a
Northwest Airlines Airbus A319 when instead of finding themselves
on the tarmac at Rapid City Regional Airport, they were on the
ground at Ellsworth AFB (SD).
As soon as the aircraft touched down, passengers said they
sensed something was amiss up front. They heard no "Welcome to
Rapid City," or "Please remain in your seats...." Instead, they
heard nothing for about five minutes.
Finally, "(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,'" said passenger Robert Morrell in an interview from the
cabin of the wayward jetliner. He was speaking with the St. Paul
Pioneer Press.
So the 117 passengers aboard the A319 sat... and sat... and
sat....
Military officials ordered passengers to shut their window
shades for security reasons (they were, after all, at a major
military installation) and questioned members of the crew. In fact,
the original flight crew was taken off the aircraft and another was
put on board to make the short hop from Ellsworth to Rapid City
Regional.
"Our investigators will be talking to the pilots, also the
control at Northwest, also air traffic control over the next
several days to weeks, to find out what happened and why," said FAA
spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Corey.
Northwest isn't saying much. In fact, the airline isn't even
admitting its pilot may have made a mistake.
"The situation is under review and we have nothing further to
add," said Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch. "We're not
acknowledging it was pilot error."
But Dr. Morrell said it was pretty evident from behind the
locked cockpit door that somebody, somehow screwed up.
"Everyone is surmising it was pilot error. The presumption is
that the pilot just landed at the wrong . . . airport," he
said.
Lt. Christine Millette agreed with the passengers' assessment.
"He was looking toward an airfield, saw one and thought it was the
other. As far as we knew, they were on track, and then they
weren't." Indeed, she said base controllers were just as surprised
as the fligth crew appeared to have been. "As they were coming out
of the clouds, they were just about to land and they realized they
were at the wrong airstrip," she said. "They said (to air
controllers), 'Hey, we are landing' and within seconds they were on
our airstrip."