Relieved of duty for landing at the wrong airport

     On September 7, 2011, Colgan Flight 3222, mistakenly landed at Southland Field, Louisiana (L75), a much smaller airport, on runway 15. This freak occurrence has happened at least two times in the last 20 years.  Their original destination was to land in Lake Charles, Louisiana (LCH), on runway 15.  It was a clear night when the pilots came upon the first indication of runway lights after flying in pitch-black conditions departing out of Houston, Texas.  Southfield airport is located 8 nautical miles west of Lake Charles with the same runway layout.  The crew of the plane was immediately "relieved of duty" while the investigation is underway.  The pilots were familiar with the route, and had flown to the Lake Charles Airport before.  The pilots were cleared for a visual approach by air traffic control out of Houston, because the tower at the airport they were supposed to land at was unmanned at that time of night.  However, they did not rely on their instruments and this is where the mistake begins.

     Some of the hazards associated with this flight are runway lengths, navigation aids, and other small aircraft that normally operate out of this airport.   The runway length at Southland Field is 5000 feet long by 75 feet wide and the runway length at Lake Charles is 6500 feet long by 150 feet wide.  The pilots did not rely on their instruments to guide them and just looked out of the window for the lights at the airport.  If they would have looked at the instrument panel and noticed that the radio frequency was incorrect, they would have figured out that the runway they were landing at was not the right one.  The complications for making this mistake are huge, for example the pilots were immediately relieved of duty pending investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.  This means that until the situation gets resolved they better be looking for a new job that will pay them some money since they are not going to receive a paycheck.

     I believe all the media that we see today on the television is mostly negative.  All they want is a story and when an airplane lands at the wrong airport, they are the first ones to notify the public about it.  It seems as if any mistake made by a pilot is newsworthy and immediately gets publicity even if the pilot lands the plane safely.   I am not supporting the efforts of the pilots that landed at the wrong airport, this stems back from their training that they received in previous years.  As a pilot you are required to have with you the destination airport diagram and be familiar with everything about it.

     

     Company policy dictates whether the pilots will be “relieved of duty,” not the pilots themselves.  All pilots know that if they make a mistake they are going to be all over the news and this portrays a negative appearance to aviation, even to the people who do not understand the airlines.  When I worked for Endeavor airlines over the summer they would bend over backwards to help you if you had any type of situation that you could not handle on your own.  Landing at the wrong airport is huge because it shows that complacency is becoming common in the airlines with everything going digital, there is less that pilots need to do in the cockpit.  If you rely on automation you are going to set yourself up for failure, you can input the wrong fix and the airplane doesn’t care.  It is going to take you to where you want it to go regardless of terrain.