Question: I read about Delta Airlines Flight 2845 that landed at Ellsworth Air Force base instead of Rapid City Regional Airport in July. How is this possible with today's modern jets havin computer controls, GPS, ILS, even radios?
- Submitted by reader Jim D'Addario, Los Angeles
Answer: It does happen occasionally that airplanes line up with the wrong airport and, in a few cases, land. There are several contributing reasons: Humans often see what they expect to see, even when it is wrong. This is known as confirmation bias and contributes to the pilot believing it is the correct airport and runway when it is not. Two pilots and rigorous crosschecking with navigation displays normally break the confirmation bias early. Fatigue can also be a factor, as performance degradation can make it more difficult to recognize the mistake.
Modern airplanes have many wonderful navigation tools helping to avoid such events. Events like the landing at the Air Force base are very rare. A complete investigation will determine the causal and contributing factors.
Q: When the flight plan is entered into the flight management systems along with waypoints, how can two pilots land at the wrong airport?
- Doug Makurat, Missouri
A: The issue of landing at an airport other than the intended destination is complex. In some cases, the crew visually sees a runway and believes it is the runway of intended landing. Confirmation bias helps them accept evidence supporting their belief and discount evidence contrary to it. Confirmation bias is difficult to overcome but a skill that pilots need.
Q: Given that there are so many easy technical solutions that could be implemented to easily identify airports (including using a personal iPad), why doesn't the FAA do something to alleviate wrong-airport landings?
- Ryan Hileman, Silver Spring, Md.
A: There are several ways to properly identify airports. The flight management computer has the runways for the destination airport programmed in. The pilots that have landed at the wrong airports in the past have all been relying on visual information and not backing it up with information from the flight management computer. It is likely that havin an iPad with the information would not have made a difference. Many flights now use an electronic flight bag that is housed on a table computer. This provides additional information to the pilots. Hopefully, the cases of wrong airport landing will be very, very rare in the future.
