Due to the Southwest 737 that went to the wrong airport a week ago, the current hot topic on everyone's mind is: "How does a pilot actually make that mistake?" Despite what many people may think, it is actually quite easy to do and happens much more often in the General Aviation world. Many issues like complacency, lack of situational awareness, even questionable procedures, and even airports that may look similar can cause many instances like this to happen.
A similar instance in which a Douglas DC-8 landed in Iosco county airport happened because of the exact same reason as the 737 flight. The crew saw the runway going in the same direction as Oscoda's airport and also had the snow plows off to the side of the runway that they were looking for. To read more about this instance click here.
The Big problem with the DC-8 landing here, was that the runway was only 4,800 feet while the airport they were intending to land at had 11,800 feet to land and take off from. Luckily this happened in winter, so to get that 70 ton DC-8 out of that tiny airport, they just waited for a nice cold, high pressure day.
The biggest and probably most identifiable reason for this, in my opinion is complacency. Every jet that wants to fly above 18,000 feet must be on an IFR flight plan, and further more, a commercial flight like the southwest 737 must also fly an approach. If these southwest pilots were flying the non-precision approach correctly, they would have seen how far off course they were. If they programed in the wrong approach and pulled out the wrong plates, they should have verified to which airport the approach would have taken them to.
From a management perspective, the pilots should have been suspended. Not only is it extremely unsafe and a clear complacency issue, but it is also a matter of public image. As aviation professionals, we will always be in the spotlight, and if Southwest wants to maintain their image as a safe airline, it will want to show the public that they believe it was the pilots fault. Even if it wasn't, the airline will probably want a scapegoat.
In conclusion, things like this will continue to happen and will continue to make pilots look stupid if they act careless. As pilots, we should be taught to never let our guard down, especially on final approach. Thanks for reading, and as always, fly safe.
You make a good point about being on an approach, but I'm not sure that is true for all airlines. I know many airlines that allow their aircraft to be cleared for a visual approach in applicable weather, and I'm assuming that this was the case in this incident.
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