C-17 Wrong airport

[kitfoxnick]

These guys Landed about 6 miles too short on a 3,500 ft runway. Cleared for the visual 22 I guess. These airports' runways are in line with each other. One is 11,480' and the other is not.
http://www.fidosysop.org/5126/07/air-force-c17-globemaster-cargo-plane-lands-at-wrong-airport/

[rwaltman]

These guys Landed about 6 miles too short ...

Happens again and again:

http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html

Roberto.

[DesertFox6]

(Ahem) I ahhh, er, well, hmmm...Air Force huh? OUR Air Force? Can't be MY Air Force! I'm pretty sure those McGuire AFB markings were photo-shopped by some lost RAF guys; the Brits also fly C-17s...great pranksters those blokes! (ahem) :o

After watching the film clip, my second question was "what freq were they on?" Tampa Approach should have handed them off to MacDill Tower at least ten miles out and they should have reported in at least 5 NM out from Runway 22 with a final approach/gear check call. Peter O. Knight is only 4 NM NE of MacDill and I'm wondering what soap the MacDill tower cab crew may have been watching on their BRITE II scope to miss something that large descending well below the MDA that far out! YIKES! Murphy was everywhere today...and you can bet I'm not the first guy to note this.

Since it's an election year here in the land of the Big BX, we're legal to put some spin on this whole situation. I quote here from page B-381, "MacDill AFB" (KMCF) of the DoD IFR Supplement, current edition covering 31 May thru 26 July 2012:

"On inst apch to Rwy 22, use caution dur ovft of Peter O. Knight Arpt due lgt acft tfc blw apch leg 4 NM NE." Unquote.

It appears on cursory inspection that, since nothing was damaged, a proper amount of caution was indeed exercised. No harm, no foul, huh? That part about overflight (ovft) seems to have been misinterpreted, but, ahh, hmmm,...yeah...whatever. :rolleyes:

Way back when I flew Double-Uglies out of MacDill we flew that approach over "Peter O." a zillion times but, being local boys, we never put one on the ground there...good thing too, since I don't think we coulda stopped a Rhino in just 3500'! :eek:

Then again, we didn't have all those fancy-glass, 2600-color-capable, back-up-battery-enhanced, situational-awareness-enhancing, multi-function displays distracting us. In all fairness, those gadgets really can't be blamed for failing the pilot(s) in this case either, since everyone on the flight deck apparently had their collective craniums inserted where the sun don't shine and the glass can't glimmer! :D

"E.T."
(To be continued...as I learn more...;))

[rwaltman]

...everyone on the flight deck apparently had their collective craniums inserted where the sun don't shine and the glass can't glimmer! :D

A temporary condition known in medical circles as "cranial-anal inversion"

I recently saw a video in youtube, (filmed from inside the cabin by a passenger,) of a small plane with retractable gear landing with the gear up.
You can not hear what the guys are saying because of the continuous beeps warning that the gear is up, beeps that were ignored until replaced with the sound of scrapping metal.

My take: if stuff like this happens to them, (and to them, and to them, and to them,) there is a tiny, microscopic, minuscule chance it may happen to me. ;)
Be extra careful and don't leave home without your checklists.

Roberto.

[cap01]

Having spent my time in the navy , I have no idea what a double ugly/rhino is ?

[kitfoxnick]

Here is his departure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ugh4thwbWN0

[DesertFox6]

Thanks for the film update, kitfoxnick! All's well that ends well! (I hope...)

In the "there but for the grace of God go I" department, I have real feelings of sympathy for everyone involved in this scenario, from the flight deck crew up to their wing commander; everyone in that chain who makes more than 40 cents an hour is gonna get a royal procto-job! That crew had just made the trip all the way from SW Asia and there's no doubt in my military mind what their state of mental and physical exhaustion may have been. The fact that they were landing at CENTCOM HQ, at MacDill, instead of at McGuire or Dover tells me there may have been some CENTCOM brass aboard who were planning on "home-delivery" service.

As Roberto points out, it ain't the first time and it won't be the last: That gear-up film clip he refers to is probably the same one a lot of us have seen; it's a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Cessna RG with three people playing unconscious spectator to the whole thing from way out on final! It got a LOT of play around the USAF 'cuz the CAP is the Air Force's official auxiliary!

And for cap01; "double-ugly" and "rhino," referring respectively to its twin engines and unmistakeably brutish build, are nicknames for the F-4 Phantom: Terms of endearment used by Navy, Marine and AF-types alike who flew/worked on/cussed at them. This also includes members of the RAF and RAAF, although the latter two august organizations usually have even more colorful (if not always printable) names for just about everything in their inventories! I always loved the Aussies name of "Pig" for their F-111Cs!

"E.T."
Phormer Phantom Phlyer
(I'll keep y'all updated if I can...film at eleven! :))

[cap01]

ppp , thanks for the f4 info . I wasn't in the hotshot navy . I guess we were maybe one step above the flying rubber dog crap out of hong kong guys . The really good thing about that is I never had to go on a boat .

[DesertFox6]

Amen on the boat-bit. When we'd get together for "tactics conferences" with our Navy buds (always convened in the host squadron's favorite watering hole) we'd get briefed in depth on their personal views concerning their Job #1: Keeping the water out of the boat!

We could feel their pain (which diminished greatly by the third round of the host unit's favorite libation) and we'd commiserate that our (USAF) birds would occasionally run off the runway too...but ours didn't sink! :D

I'd sure like to swap our local 110 degree "Fire-n-hite" temps for what you have there in Yelm these days!

"E.T."
(Puyallup High Grad and Thun Field hangar rat, 1967)

[cap01]

ppp , not only hot but buy the morning news , lots of dust . 1967, thun field has changed a lot since then , I was up at the naval air station on whidbey island and learned to fly from the oak harbor airport . Still don't like boats . Yes the cool weather is nice but the price we pay is that not everyday is good for flying .