Flying around the US can be a trying experience. Between the endless ticket fare searches, figuring out what to pack, waiting in ridiculous TSA lines, and cramped space on the plane — it’s all a bit much sometimes. Now imagine the added rigamarole of the plane straight up landing at the wrong airport. That’s what happened to passengers on Delta Flight 2845 from the Twin Cities to Rapid City, South Dakota. Somehow the crew and air traffic controllers guided the plane and its 130 passengers to Ellsworth Air Force Base instead of Rapid City Regional. Evidently the airstrips are almost identical and lay upon the same axis. That still doesn’t account for everyone missing that the plane was landing over 10 miles from where it was supposed to be touching down.
Shockingly this happens more often than you’d expect. According to the Associated Press’s own study of government data, 150 airplanes have landed at the wrong airport since the early 1990s. But why? The AP cites that, “in most cases, the pilots were cleared by controllers to fly based on what they could see rather than relying on automation. Many incidents occurred at night, with pilots reporting they were attracted by the runway lights of the first airport they saw during descent.”
Maybe this is when you know it is time to switch on the ol’ auto-pilot, captain. Luckily no one was injured and the flight quickly made a turn around and delivered the 130 passengers to their destination with a cursory apology.
(Via USA Today)
