Memo RAAF. How to make the News on a slow day
A C-17 shook up a quiet, picturesque Tampa Bay airport earlier this week when it mistakenly landed on its 3400 feet runway instead of the 11,000 feet runway of a nearby USAF base.
Imagine this happening, without notice, at Bankstown, Albion Park, Essendon, Port Macquarie, Goulburn, or for a spectacular backdrop, Mount Hotham, with one of the RAAF C-17s.
Screen grab from best video by Live Leak. CLICK LINK ABOVE NOT IMAGE.
Of course incidents like this have occurred down the years in most countries, with airliners landing at the wrong airport, sometimes on a very marginal runway in terms of their needs, and there have been incidents where jets lined up for example, for a landing at Essendon on a much shorter runway than at the nearby main Melbourne Airport at Tullamarine, but fortunately aborted the approach at the last moment.
In this case the saving grace was the C-17′s renowned short field performance which allowed it to both stop and later leave from the runway, which was suited to light aircraft and general aviation activities, and significantly shorter than Essendon’s runway, which was used, until Tullamarine opened, by BOAC Comet IVs, TAA and Ansett-ANA Boeing 727-100 hot rods, and their smaller DC-9-30s in passenger services and continues to take a wide range of corporate jets.
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A quick check of google maps shows the airfield is surprising close to McDill. Perhaps someone was checking their txts instead of more important matters. Anyway some ones flying career is over.
by ghostwhowalksnz on Jul 24, 2012 at 9:53 am
Such a pretty aeroplane. It’s what the BAe146 wanted to be, but wasn’t prepared to spend the time in the gym.
by wordfactory on Jul 24, 2012 at 11:50 am
wordfacory; the C-17 is blessed with four big jet engines whereas the BAe146 only got four APUS.
by Cat on a PC© on Jul 24, 2012 at 1:18 pm
. . . dreaded caps lock . . . that last is meant to read APUs
by Cat on a PC© on Jul 24, 2012 at 2:34 pm
Ah yes, the ‘Quadropuff’. The 146 served the NW of Western Australia very well for about 15 years, in various liveries. I understand many are still doing charters for the mining industry. We very rarely had to offload freight and baggage, because it was too hot, like we did with the F-28s. Their main disadvantage was that the BaE146 took 10 minutes longer to do the journey from Port Hedland or Karratha to Perth, than a F28 or B737. That was probably because of it’s restricted flight ceiling of 28,000 feet.
by Bird Kenneth on Jul 24, 2012 at 3:35 pm
From Google Earth both runways are 22 (why do people build nearby runways on the same bearing?), and the cross-track between them is minimal, and you approach both of them over a bay. Even so.
I was at a Biggin Hill airshow when a pair of F16′s did an attempted fly-past.. …over Kenley, a similar runway but around 5 miles away cross-track. So much for “military precision”.
by NiallOC on Jul 24, 2012 at 5:47 pm
@NiallOC ….why do people build nearby runways on the same bearing?
This is not unsusual as in the instance you have identified 5 miles away cross track the prevailing weather conditions and geography would be similar, if not the same.
One of the many examples from the UAE, Dubai and Sharjah(about 20km apart) have same runway headings, as does the much more distant Jebel Ali(Dubai World Al Maktoum).
by Kapo on Jul 26, 2012 at 6:57 am