Wrong-Way NWA Flight Startled Runway Stripe-Painters

So you and a couple of pals are working at what you do best -- painting stripes on a runway. You're minding your own business when you hear an airplane approaching. No worries, you say to each other, there are other runways. This one is closed. There's a NOTAM. It's on the ATIS.

But the plane keeps coming.

That was the situation at Ellsworth AFB over the weekend. KOTA Television reports Mike Palmer and two other painters stood up from their task and watched the Airbus A319 approach. By the time the flight crew lowered the landing gear, Palmer and company knew enough to run for their lives.

The Northwest Airlines A319 carrying 117 passengers landed at Ellsworth by mistake, intending to land at Rapid City Regional Airport (SD). The aircraft was kept on the ground -- away from Ellsworth's complement of B-1 bombers -- for more than three hours while the crew was questioned, then replaced by another from Northwest.

The flight crew on the errant Airbus has since been grounded pending an NWA investigation.

FMI: www.nwa.com