Whoops! Southwest plane lands at Taney instead of Branson

[Swoosh]

The pilots have been grounded until further notice (basically they are laid off without pay) -- sounds like they will be terminated here soon according to some of our pilot friends.  In their defense, Branson Tower wasn't much help to them -- but to land at SofO... sorry CofO's airport which is only 1000 yard longer than our grass strip we use... yeah, it's pretty obvious even in the dark that CofO's airport is not Branson's airport which is MUCH longer.

[sanddunerider]

Still NO real explanation....

http://news.yahoo.com/southwest-pilots-confused-lights-wrong-u-airport-023221173--finance.html

[qwed94]

Yeah they had a piece on that on our local news at 10 tonite.
Pilot "supposedly" said that the lights on that runway was way brighter, and the Branson tower said they were still a few miles off, then supposedly gave them clearance to land.  Soooo we still dont know, and never will.
All I can say is, Humans will make mistakes. and this was one of them.

[sanddunerider]

Right on Qwed......  We will proablay NEVER know the truth!........

[KBCraig]

Pilot "supposedly" said that the lights on that runway was way brighter

Yes, lights are brighter when you're lined up with the runway... by design! When you combine the bright lights, the runway number (first two digits of the magnetic heading), and your actual heading, you have what we call a "clue".

[qwed94]

Hey, I didnt make up that line of mumble jumble.  That is what the news said.  Although you are right "KB"

There was more on our news about this tonite. But basically the same story.  Although this time "they said" that the pilot admitted to the Branson tower saying they were still a few miles from destination.

In other words the Pilot/Copilot/and crew just made a great big OOPS!

[sanddunerider]

I am not a pilot..... AND i dont know all the details................ 

BUT i am pretty sure when they set the computer for the airport location.. the puter reads off the GPS location... 

So in simple words.... 

How is the world did they land 8 miles off apreset GPS coordination??  LOL..  pretty simple question/detail...... ...........

I guess they could have putin the "wrong" airport?...LOL

[sanddunerider]

Just read this...a few facts.....  Not any info as to "why" it happened.... But....


http://bransontrilakesnews.com/news_free/article_45b3e1ea-7fb2-11e3-a430-001a4bcf887a.html

[Witention]

Looks like AVweb has figured out what went wrong. They posted a video showing the results of their in-depth investigation of why airplanes land at the wrong airport. Here is the video.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOu4PJW39BQ

[sanddunerider]

I heard the other day, that the one pilot retired, and the other one is back on duty,,,,,'


Now if they could just find the Malaysia plane,,,,,,,,