SWA-WRONG AIRPORT

This week a Southwest Airlines flight landed at the wrong airport. They were supposed to fly from Chicago Midway to Branson, MO. Unfortunately the flight arrived at a General Aviation (GA) airport 7 miles away from Branson with 1/2 the runway length of Branson, 3700 feet versus 7500 feet.

I do not know what equipment the 737-700 had on board for this flight. I do know that in the days before GPS were in airliners, some pilots were carrying their own GPS on board just so something like this could not ruin their career. I also do not know if these 2 veteran pilots of SWA have flown into Branson before, and if so, had they ever flown in at night. 

If you have ever flown into an airport at night in a lit up city, it can be hard to find the correct airport.

I feel that GPS is one of if not the most important inventions for Aviation. The first GPS I bought was a Garmin 100 for my glider competitions. The 100 did not have a database, as we had to enter our own waypoints. GPS’s were not legal in glider competitions in the 1990’s, and I only used it for practice rounds so I could recognize the waypoints during competition. Today GPS is legal in Glider tournaments.

Another phenomenal invention is the IPad with an aviation APP like ForeFlight or WingX. Most airlines are now carrying a tablet in the cockpit. However, the FAA in it’s infinite wisdom, has declared that airlines cannot have a moving map with situation awareness on an IPad in the cockpit. 

Both WingX and Garmin 396/496 have runway extensions on them. If your destination airport is in your flight plan a line extends out either 3 or 5 miles, based on what you set it for, showing you your path to the correct airport.

If all planes were equipped like this, it would eliminate landing at the wrong airport. Again common sense escapes the FAA.

UPDATED JAN 17
Captain never landed at Branson and FO only landed there once and that was in daylight. This makes matters worse. When I fly to a new airport I study the charts throughly...just so something like this would never happen.