Oops... Airliner lands at the wrong airport...

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Newps" wrote in message
...
It's possible that ATC had the wrong destination listed for the
aircraft.

No, it's not. No airliners go into Ellsworth.

So it's impossible? You have a funny definition of "impossible".

If the fact that no airliners go into Ellsworth

It is a fact. They have no terminal, nothing.


really meant it was
impossible to have that airport accidently listed as the destination

How would that happen? The company files the flight plan everyday. RCA
isn't one of their destinations, just like STP isn't one of their
destinations. So how would it get on the flight plan? The captain gets the
paperwork from the gate agent before boarding the plane and sees the
clearance the dispatcher has filed for him. NWA crew calls for clearance
to "Rapid City", controller says "cleared to Rapid City as filed, blah,
blah, blah. MSP controllers see several clearances to RAP everyday,
probably never see a flightplan to RCA. All center controllers would see
the clearance to RCA and nobody would say "you going to the Air Force base?"
The approach control is the Air Force. They see the same flights to RAP the
same time everyday. They never see a NWA flight to RCA. So you think they
are going to miss the wrong airport ID on the arrival strip? It would stand
out like a flashing red light. Like if you walk up to your plane and a wing
is missing. Any chance at all you would be taxiing out before you notice a
little discrepancy?




Oh, no...but, wait. It seems they didn't notice that an airliner was
getting ready to land at an airport at which no airliner ever lands.

Why the approach controller didn't notice I don't know. I have only flown
to RAP a couple of times and don't remember the layout. I don't know what
route NWA would normally take in these situations when they are manuvering
for the airport. How much time the controller would have if he were
watching I can't say. I would think a few minutes at least. The tower
controller is more understandable as he has no radar. When I worked at GFK
we were 10 miles east of GFA, the Grand Forks Air Force base. We both had
runways 17/35 and they both started just across US Hwy 2 and we didn't have
radar either. The base only had one runway and we had three but I have seen
many aircraft line up for the base by mistake. Many time the tower
controller would call over on the shout line and ask us if we were missing
one.



which means
it IS possible (though perhaps unlikely) that ATC had the wrong
destination
listed for the airliner.

No it's not.