Delta flight mistakenly lands at base in South Dakota

[ckf]

Not sure how this happens with the technology that's available today

Ellsworth Air Base 10 miles from Rapid City Airport

UPDATED 4:09 AM EDT Jul 09, 2016

Michael Calloway/CNN

(CNN) —A Delta flight mistakenly landed at an air force base in South Dakota -- instead of the intended airport about 10 miles away

Delta Flight 2845 left Minneapolis for South Dakota on Thursday evening with 130 people aboard.

The Airbus A320 was scheduled to touch down at Rapid City Regional Airport, but landed instead at Ellsworth Air Force Base, Delta said in a statement.

The airport and the air force base are just a few miles apart, and their runways point in nearly the same direction.

A few hours later, after coordinating with officials, the flight took off for Rapid City the same night.

Investigation underway

Federal officials are investigating the incident.

"The crew has been taken off-duty while an investigation commences by the National Transportation Safety Board," the airline said.

"Delta will fully cooperate with that investigation and has already begun an internal review of its own."

The airline said it has "offered a gesture of apology for the inconvenience" to customers affected, but did not provide specifics.

While rare, Delta is not the first airline to end up at the wrong airport.

Two years ago, a Southwest Airlines jet mistakenly landed several miles away at a Missouri municipal airport that did not have a control tower in Taney County.

The Taney County airport's runway was half the length of the one at Branson Airport, where it was originally intended to land. The pilots had to brake hard when the aircraft with 129 people aboard touched down.

No one was injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigated that incident as well.

[Capt.Storm]

opps!

[Kevin]

Pilot mistakes aside, how is the Air Force allowed it to land?

[Capt.Storm]

4 minutes ago, Kevin said:

Pilot mistakes aside, how is the Air Force allowed it to land?

How were they going to stop it?

You would think though that they would have showed up on the air force radar.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Capt.Storm

[racinfarmer]

Ellsworth is the most lit up and brightest place in all of South Dakota.  If you are new to the route, I could see how it could happen.  

[Capt.Storm]

3 minutes ago, racinfarmer said:

Ellsworth is the most lit up and brightest place in all of South Dakota.  If you are new to the route, I could see how it could happen.  

Yeah,even my gps has been off by a few hundred feet before....

[Ebsell]

13 minutes ago, Capt.Storm said:

Yeah,even my gps has been off by a few hundred feet before....

Really? I have never had a GPS off by more than 15 ft and that's on water and in fog. If it's off more than that you would never find a buoy. In recent years with DGPS they are bang on 

[racinfarmer]

16 minutes ago, Capt.Storm said:

Yeah,even my gps has been off by a few hundred feet before....

We can get sub 1/8" accuracy off ours.  

If it was me flying VFR, my instincts tell me that bitch is landing at Ellsworth instead of the regional airport.  Also one of the reasons I'm not a pilot.  

[Capt.Storm]

7 minutes ago, Ebsell said:

Really? I have never had a GPS off by more than 15 ft and that's on water and in fog. If it's off more than that you would never find a buoy. In recent years with DGPS they are bang on 

Yeah..happens when I'm looking for a certain house mostly.

[Momorider]

54 minutes ago, Capt.Storm said:

Yeah..happens when I'm looking for a certain house mostly.

Yah the address database is not GPS  it's a reference file 

[Kivalo]

Good thing the Air force didn't shoot it down.

[Sal Rosenberg]

11 hours ago, Kivalo said:

Good thing the Air force didn't shoot it down.

 

If the pilot was black they probly would have

[Anler]

Pilots are constantly in contact with air traffic control. Especially during take off and landing. It's very hard to understand how this happened. 

[Kivalo]

10 hours ago, Sal Rosenberg said:

 

If the pilot was black they probly would have

Black Pilots Matter!

Edited July 10, 2016 by Kivalo

[Poncho]

It happens more often than you think....and has happened before.  Ellsworth runway heading is approximately the same as Rapid City.

I took this right off the Rapid City Regional Airport Information sheet, in the Remarks section...

• "BE ALERT DO NOT MISTAKE ELLSWORTH AFB, LOCATED 6.5 NM NNW FOR RAPID CITY RGNL."