| Wargamer Blue | 23 Mar 2014 4:20 p.m. PST |
Nothing to fear about China. MH370 search plane can't find a military airbase. link "They landed at Perth and then they landed here," RAAF Corporal Janine Fabre told Reuters at Base Pearce, a dusty collection of runways and low-slung buildings about 35 kilometres north of Perth. "We don't know why." Chinese reports later denied the IL-76 had landed at the wrong airport. |
| Deadone | 23 Mar 2014 4:37 p.m. PST |
Actually that also implies that the air traffic controllers didn't do their jobs right either. |
| Mako11 | 23 Mar 2014 4:38 p.m. PST |
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| Lion in the Stars | 23 Mar 2014 6:30 p.m. PST |
Lined up on the wrong ILS beacon? |
 Editor in Chief Bill   | 23 Mar 2014 6:43 p.m. PST |
Spying?  |
| Skeptic | 23 Mar 2014 9:08 p.m. PST |
Might Base Pearce have seemed so basic that they could not believe that it was where they were supposed to land? |
| FoxtrotPapaRomeo | 24 Mar 2014 2:36 a.m. PST |
Skeptic, Rest assured, flies aren't all that fly around Pearce. RAAF Pearce has been around for 70+ years and is a modern air base. Apart from the many occasional visitors such as the Chinese, RAAF and Singapore have training squadrons permanently based here. There are three runways … and it is located just outside Perth, a city of some 1.7 million people. Have a great day, FPR |
| Jemima Fawr | 24 Mar 2014 4:31 a.m. PST |
If a pilot locates the wrong airfield but makes all the calls to the airfield he THINKS he's going to rather than the airfield he's actually going to, then that's entirely the pilot's fault, not the controller's. Such things do happen. A Boeing 737 once landed at RAF Northolt, thinking it was Heathrow… |
| Skeptic | 24 Mar 2014 5:20 a.m. PST |
Thanks, FPR. It was only a guess, obviously a bad one at that. |
| Klebert L Hall | 24 Mar 2014 6:22 a.m. PST |
We had 2 separate incidents last year of commercial aircraft
failing to land at the St. Louis airport, instead landing at smaller fields outside of town. The freighter had to be unloaded before it could take off again.
-Kle. |
| Jemima Fawr | 24 Mar 2014 7:19 a.m. PST |
Yes, the 737 at Northolt had to be stripped of everything, including the seats, before it could (semi-) safely get back off the ground. |
 Legion 4   | 25 Mar 2014 8:15 a.m. PST |
How do you say "DOH!!!" in Chinese …  |
| Jemima Fawr | 25 Mar 2014 8:17 a.m. PST |
"No. 128" Ok, that's Dumplings, but it's near enough… |
| SouthernPhantom | 25 Mar 2014 11:47 a.m. PST |
We had a C-17 out of Southwest Asia accidentally land at a general aviation airport a few blocks from my house. Talk about LOUD…
That airport's runway direction and general location (on a peninsula) is pretty much identical to that of the nearby air force base. The aircraft didn't have to be disassembled, fortunately. It was (barely) able to take off; being designed for STOL helps. |
| Lion in the Stars | 25 Mar 2014 3:21 p.m. PST |
Yes, the 737 at Northolt had to be stripped of everything, including the seats, before it could (semi-) safely get back off the ground. Dang, how short IS that runway?!? A light 737 (no cargo or passengers, all the seats still in) should be able to take off in less than 5000 feet! |
| Jemima Fawr | 25 Mar 2014 10:59 p.m. PST |
5,500 feet or thereabouts. Sorry, 707 not 737. |
| Jemima Fawr | 26 Mar 2014 3:38 a.m. PST |
Mate of mine (a senior Air Trafficker) was telling me about an incident many years ago, when he was a controller at RAF Shawbury. He had a call from RAF Leeming, some 100+ miles away, asking if he had an RAF Cranwell Jet Provost sitting on the runway. Alarmed, he looked out of the window, and sure enough, there was a Cranwell JP sitting on the tarmac – it had simply arrived unannounced, in the middle of a very busy circuit! Apparently the JP pilot had made all the calls to Leeming and when he failed to arrive, Leeming realised that he'd landed somewhere else, so started calling every other RAF Station to see where he actually was… |
