You Guys Have Your Own Problems

[boeing787]

Passengers Told Not To Peek

Jun 20, 2004 12:18 pm US/Central

A Northwest Airlines flight that was headed to Rapid City, S.D., landed a few miles off course at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and passengers had to wait in the plane for more than three hours while their crew was interrogated.

Passengers on Northwest Flight 1152, an Airbus A-319 from St. Paul, expected to be welcomed to Rapid City Regional Airport on Saturday, but after about five minutes they were told to close their window shades and not look out, said passenger Robert Morrell.

"He (the pilot) hemmed and he hawed and he said 'We have landed at an Air Force base a few miles from the Rapid City airport and now we are going to figure out how we're going to get from here to there,"' Morrell told the St. Paul Pioneer Press by cell phone during the delay Saturday.

Eventually, the captain and first officer were replaced by a different Northwest crew for the short hop to the right airport.

Northwest confirmed that the crew made an "unscheduled landing."

"The situation is under review and we have nothing further to add," said Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch. He would not identify the cockpit crew, or say if the pilot made an error.

Ellsworth controls all air space 40 miles around the base and clears landings at both the civilian airport and the base.

The city's airport runway is "just over the hill" from Ellsworth, and the Northwest crew had to descend through a layer of clouds, said a base spokeswoman, Lt. Christine Millette.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
__________________

 

[magsau]

Oh, they were probably caught up in a discussion in the cockpit about which UA asset NW was going to buy and landed at the wrong airport.

What I find amazing is that they were landing an airplane with a glass cockpit and a moving map right in front of them. UFB!!!!

Of course they may have just been drunk Or in a hurry to hit happy hour.

 

[N924PS]

Oh, they were probably caught up in a discussion in the cockpit about which UA asset NW was going to buy and landed at the wrong airport.

What I find amazing is that they were landing an airplane with a glass cockpit and a moving map right in front of them. UFB!!!!

Of course they may have just been drunk Or in a hurry to hit happy hour.

Magsau,

All I can say is if you are a pilot that thinks "this can't happen to me" I urge you to lose that attitude right now. It can.


Also, until the investigation is complete, you should know not to speculate, much the same as some uniformed member of the press might. And your comment regarding the sobriety of the crew, even if in jest, was simply unprofessional on your part, if in fact you are an airline pilot at all.

I'm sure if they played back all the voice recorders on the UAL fleet the day the ATSB denied your loan, I bet you wouldn't be so quick to disparage another airline's crewmembers either.

Remember, CRM started because some Mainliner SkyGod ran his DC-8 out of gas over PDX a while back. Was he in a hurry to hit happy hour too?

 

[Busdrvr]

Although I'm VERY surprised it happened in a 319, I must say that with the exception of the pavlovian salivation over the non-existant routes for sell (when you should be salivating over the pay cuts you'll have to take to stay competative with a "cheaper" workforce at UAL...) I must admit that I'm surprised and happy/impressed with the professional and generally supportive posts and the lack of deragatory post from the class outfits out there (NWA, AMR, DAL, and U). Thanks .

 

[Long Gone]

Maybe it's these boneheads again-

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2003/0...ado-landing.htm

I wonder if the D.O. of Flt. Ops is going to babble again in defense of these idiots. The Pearls of Wisdom could be memorable. If Northwest doesn't terminate these idiots they are condoning negligence. The attempt to lecture that this can happen to anyone is stupidity. Morons shouldn't be flying passengers, morons which make excuses for negligence shouldn't be flying passengers. The FAA should send the wrong airport morons to the same rehab center they sent the last group of drunk morons. At least they landed at the right airport.

 

[magsau]

Wow, starting to see a pattern here. Last month one of the monthly aviation magazines had an aritcle about a NW 757 that landed on the wrong runway at BWI. This with the F/O telling the Capt to go around when he realized it was the wrong runway. The Capt. continued to a hard landing and tail strike on the 757 on 33R at BWI.

Hasn't NW also totaled a few airplanes at various gates around the country? LGA and MEM seem to sound familiar. Thought I saw those pictures on Airliners.net.

Perhaps now that NW is a close alliance with DL they can use a take on the old "Delta Gets You There" slogan, to "NW, Gets you close".

Pleas lower your shades for the remainder of the post.......

 

[ITRADE]

33R? Isn't that one like 5000' in length???? Cutting it a bit close on a 757.

 

[mweiss]

Gee, there wasn't any flamebait in that post, magsau, was there? :huh:

 

[mweiss]

33R? Isn't that one like 5000' in length????

Exactly 5000' in length.

 

[G4G5]

What happend to the DC10 crew that landed in Frankfurt instead of Brussles?

I know the captain retired right away.

 

[mga707]

On a slightly different angle, what in the heck is so double-secret hush-hush at Ellsworth AFB, fer goshsakes? One would think they'd have landed the 'bus at Groom Lake rather than LAS and pulled up next to a shiny row of Bob Lazar's reverse-engineered 'sport models" the way the USAF reacted!
Our local AFB has public tours every weekend--nothing secret 'bout A-10s, EC-130s, and a big 'ol boneyard!

 

[NWA CSA]

Of course NW has it's own problems...every airline does. This incident is nothing but a blip on the radar screen and could happen easily at ANY airline and has.

Funny how the UAL people, with SERIOUS problems of there own, 90% of which are the cause their own bad management, drop in when they see something happening at the competition that they can poke fun at...a true act of class. <_<

 

[magsau]

NWA CSA,

I apologize to poking fun at NWA. However, if you would like to read the rest of your board you will find plenty of blood in the water speculation about UA by the NWA folks.


"Funny how the UAL people, with SERIOUS problems of there own, 90% of which are the cause their own bad management, drop in when they see something happening at the competition that they can poke fun at...a true act of class."

Now if you fly drunk, land at the wrong airport (2 times), wrong runway etc. Who's fault is that? UAL's? How about that winter storm operation you guys had a couple of years ago? Was that someone elses fault also?

 

[frankbooth]

On a slightly different angle, what in the heck is so double-secret hush-hush at Ellsworth AFB, fer goshsakes? One would think they'd have landed the 'bus at Groom Lake rather than LAS and pulled up next to a shiny row of Bob Lazar's reverse-engineered 'sport models" the way the USAF reacted!
Our local AFB has public tours every weekend--nothing secret 'bout A-10s, EC-130s, and a big 'ol boneyard!

Nothing too secret, unless you count the NUKES! Bases with nukes have always had security measures quite a few steps beyond bases that don't.

I can understand how an unauthorized aircraft flying in very close proximity to where we store nukes might get the AF's attention.

As a furloughed Airbus guy, I still don't see how something like this could happen.

 

[NWA CSA]

NWA CSA,

I apologize to poking fun at NWA. However, if you would like to read the rest of your board you will find plenty of blood in the water speculation about UA by the NWA folks.


"Funny how the UAL people, with SERIOUS problems of their own, 90% of which are the cause their own bad management, drop in when they see something happening at the competition that they can poke fun at...a true act of class."

Now if you fly drunk, land at the wrong airport (2 times), wrong runway etc. Who's fault is that? UAL's? How about that winter storm operation you guys had a couple of years ago? Was that someone elses fault also?

OK, you apologize, yeah right...and then list a few other black eyes NW has experienced.

I don't remember EVER mentioning anything that has happened at NW as being anyone else's fault...I did state that they could happen at ANY carrier including UAL and have...not everything makes the front page...I could go into a list of specific events that are not exactly shining moments at UA, AA, DL, or whoever (some of which have cost human lives) but I have better things to do my time as I would think you would with the survivability of your carrier at stake (for reasons I won't list!).

I believe UA will survive, albeit a different carrier ...I personally think it's still headed down the wrong path with Ted but time will tell. As we all know, things change quickly in this industry and the decisions UA has/will make may change the direction of the entire airline business.