And it did not appear he stood on the brakes KSNA style while boosting up!  He just went!

 

 

The -700 is one heck of a plane when it come to thrust to weight ratio.  It's the best all around performer in the 737NG series as testimate by the PMDG and iFly models in our simulated world.

 

An empty -700 is very capable of taking off from a runway short as this one.  :p0504:

Not enough automation is an interesting thought, though I would find that argument to be more applicable to situations where control of the plane is an issue, as opposed to landing not just on the wrong runway, but at a completely different airport, in a modern airliner with an abundance of navigation tools and cues that would seem to make that difficult to actually do.

 

As opposed to a "Walter Mitty" pilot as myself, I'm curious as to the opinions of a rw airline pilot as to how this could happen. I'm also curious about the ability of ATC to determine when a liner is so far off course on landing. (Oh, I will be flying this route tonight in the NGX out of curiosity).

Were people actually surprised it took off?  It's an empty -700 that was most likely just hopping back over to Branson which is less than 10 miles away.   They didn't even do a short-field take-off.

What did really shock me is that the two runways don't look with the same orientation at all. Let's figure out the pilot's thoughts "Gosh, they told me runway was 33 and they shifted it to 12 degrees"...

Like others mentioned, with the navigational tools the pilots have in modern airliners, approach plates (supposedly for the airport they were supposed to land at) and communication with ATC, it just blows my mind that this could happen. Even more so with what should be two experienced pilots in control.

 

I think this just happened recently at another airport where an Air Force "heavy" landed at the wrong field that was close to where they were supposed to land.

 

For a professional pilot, military or commercial, this has to be one of the most embarrasing things that could happen to you.

 

Thank god no one was hurt this time and the plane didnt go off the cliff that was at the end of the runway.

There is one part of the puzzle that has not been mentioned. Where was the Tower Controller in all of this. Even though this was a visual approach the plane was still on radar, at night when traffic should have been light. I spot with a scanner at least a couple of times a week at KCMH. Just because the 737 may have got clearance to land does not mean he automatically got handed off. The controller should have seen the mishap before the pilots.

Nice empty plane takeoff... for some reason without sound... but still nice to see. You're right, the -700 is a rocket empty... possibly with a minimum fuel load as well, just to get over to the planned airport...

 

At the end of the day, the pilots messed up, not ATC...

 

A

Those on that plane were lucky. I am glad everybody walked away OK.

 

Of course this is a human error type incident, just because it appears that the pilots were the first being surprised at finding how short the runway was!.

 

I was guilty of a similar incident landing visual my PMDG 737NGX (by the way I was using the SWA livery) a few weeks ago. I came almost to land at KEFD (Ellington field) instead of KHOU (Houston Hobby). Both fairly close, with Rwy's on similar heading, and both with several Rwy orientations. I was fortunate to realize my mistake on time to go around and get back on track to land at the right place.

 

I used visual because I trusted more what I was seeing (Rwy lights, etc) than the precise indications of the instrument readings. 

Let's see if Fox News got it...   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-ehNMdPobM

Those clouds look very "cartoonish..." :LMAO:

 

Technical Notes:

1. This video was obviously re-recorded from a computer playback. You can see the mouse "cursor" on screen.

 

2. There is audio, but you have to crank the volume up to "FULL" in order to hear the engines.

On the upside, these pilots must have been really on the numbers to get stopped in that short of space. And everyone DID get off safe.  At the end of the day they kept everyone safe in spite of having made this error.

Seems to be a regular occurence in the USA...

I remember having seen a documentary where a jetliner landed on the taxiway parallel to where today is RWY05L in MMMX. A high number of fatalities unfortunately.That was quite a few years ago (20+)

 

 

Where was the Tower Controller in all of this. Even though this was a visual approach the plane was still on radar,

 

 Was it on radar though? What's the coverage like from the radar site? Does the tower even have a radar feed?  We need to wait for the facts before making assumptions.

One report said that the airport he was supposed to land at didn't have radar.  The airport where he did land at didn't have a tower.

 

Hook

I was going to play around with this last night, but I use FS9 and Branson is a new enough airport that it is not in the database.  There's a scenery upgrade that someone did for it, though.

 

I noticed one thing in common with this and wrong-airport landing in Wichita a few months back.  The planes both landed at airports a few miles short of their intended destinations, and the runways were not too far off in orientation.  Neither of the "wrong" airports had towers.

Plane is about to takeoff now, but CNN cut away right before it happened to talk about chris christie. I'd rather watch the plane takeoff. heh

 

Yeah, but an empty 737 is easier to get in the air than a loaded Chris Christie.