By now everyone in the commercial aviation world knows about
the Boeing 747 Dreamlifter landing at the wrong airport in Kansas. This aircraft is modified to fly large sections
of the 787 Dreamliner to facilities where portions of the manufacturing process
are performed. This modified aircraft
does, however, have the standard FMS flight guidance systems of a typical
B747-400. There were no injuries to the
cargo or crew outside of embarrassment.
Embarrassment is that feeling we get when we have remorse for our
actions. The more public the mistake the
more the embarrassment. Usually there is
the obligatory “I’ll never do that again.”
It is ironic that in the midst of an industry wide
discussion about commercial pilots’ deterioration of manual flying skills we
have an incident that could have been prevented by less manual flying. It is very hard to fly an instrument approach
to the wrong airport. Landing on the
wrong runway maybe, but not the wrong airport.
There were many clues inside the cockpit that could or would have shown
the pilots they were not where they thought they were. Sadly, many pilots crashed in the early days
of instrument flying because they did not use or believe the information that
was available to them.
This is the lesson that we should all learn from this crew’s
embarrassment, “We are all capable of landing at the wrong airport.” It is not because we are bad pilots. It is not because we are too reliant on
automation. It is not because we do not
have enough information to verify our position.
It is not because the ground proximity warning system is
inadequate. It is not because we have
insufficient procedural guidance. It is
because we lack identification with those pilots who have made these mistakes
before. We think we are better than
that. The biggest threat we all face in
aviation is the feeling that it won’t happen to us.
