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OH DEAR WRONG AIRFIELD!!!

B

Backpacker1uk

War Hero
Ryanair flight lands at wrong airport

A Ryanair flight has garnered media attention for landing at the wrong airport. Flight 9884 from Liverpool to the City of Derry Airport landed five miles away at the Ballykelly Camp army airfield. News report say the 38 passengers at first thought the pilot was joking when he said that they had landed at the wrong airport, but figured out that he was telling the truth when they saw army officers outside. The passengers had to wait to get off the plane because airport staff had to bring the landing steps over by road.

Ryanair said in a statement last night that the pilot had been cleared by air traffic control for a visual approach to City of Derry Airport, but the pilot mistook the Ballykelly Camp for the airport. They are investigating the incident.
 
ISn't the City of Derry airport not like, RIGHT BESIDE the city, and no where near 5 miles away in the middle of nowhere like Ballykelly?
 
Ballykelly, now "Shackleton Barracks," was known in the '60s as "Puckoon International Field," for the Spike Milligan fans amongst us. The differences between Ballykelly and Derry Airport are huge, not least the Lough to the West and a bloody great mountain 'Ben Twitch' to the East of the Main runway. It is (allegedly) the only aerodrome in the world where a sheep has been killed by a train on the main runway!

In 1969 it became a happy tri-service base when 8 Brigade arrived to join 819 Squadron RN and the two resident RAF Shackleton (Maritime) squadrons. Happy hours on Fridays were legendary. The newly arrived Brigadier was so impressed by the free barrel of beer provided by the Crabs at the end of their tours (usually two to three years) that he let it be known that he would like his officers to make the same gesture. Several Majors joined in the spirit of things, despite their stint at Ballykelly being one month or less!

Happy days!!! 8)
 
Happy days indeed, I spent 6 months on 819 SQN in 1970 and had wonderful times in Limavady and Derry. It worked well as a Tri-service base except when the Black Watch came to stay. They tended to wreak havoc wherever they went on the base and surrounding area. Good to have on your side in a rumble though.
 
There was a story of a Pan Am 707 putting down on Northolt instead of Heathrow in the late 60's having mistaken Southall Gasometer for Hounslow Gasometer which at that time was used as a line up point for Heathrow.

Mabe just a dit, do our flyboys know.

Found on Google

Operationally constrained by its proximity to the much larger civilian airport at Heathrow Airport, Exception Handler: No article summary found.at least two pilots have confused the two during their final approaches, Exception Handler: No article summary found.Two pilots of Boeing 707 jetliners mistakenly flew approaches to Northolt's shorter runway after they had been cleared to land at Heathrow Airport (London heathrow airport , often referred to simply as heathrow, is the united kingdoms busiest and best-connected...)


Nutty
 
Nutty said:
There was a story of a Pan Am 707 putting down on Northolt instead of Heathrow in the late 60's having mistaken Southall Gasometer for Hounslow Gasometer which at that time was used as a line up point for Heathrow.



Nutty
Click to expand...

make that South Harrow gasometer rather that Southall!!! It even had a big white NO on the flightpath side. No longer there (the gasometer that is).
 
wysiwyg said:
Nutty said:
There was a story of a Pan Am 707 putting down on Northolt instead of Heathrow in the late 60's having mistaken Southall Gasometer for Hounslow Gasometer which at that time was used as a line up point for Heathrow.



Nutty
Click to expand...

make that South Harrow gasometer rather that Southall!!! It even had a big white NO on the flightpath side. No longer there (the gasometer that is).
Click to expand...


South Harrow to Southall is not that far for a submariner even if the difference is important to you WAFU types. Tannoy on Truncheon, circa 1967, when surfacing in the Eastern Atlantic from the Captain. "Bridge-Helm steer Course 090. flash up SeaGuard (Radar) infom me when Ireland appears on the screen"

Now that precise Navigation.

Nutty
 
The next Ryanair into Derry got the airport right but it was 3 hours late. Could be he spent that time trying to make up his mind which was the correct aiport

Ryan being an Irish name, Derry of course being in N.I. Nuff sed
 
sidon55 said:
The next Ryanair into Derry got the airport right but it was 3 hours late. Could be he spent that time trying to make up his mind which was the correct aiport

Ryan being an Irish name, Derry of course being in N.I. Nuff sed
Click to expand...

Nickle Arris

RyanAir landing at Londonderry Airport:

Co Pilot. "God look how short that runway is"

Pilot. "No problem, as soon as the wheels touch give it full throttle with the deflectors out and brakes hard on we will stop in time"

They hit the runway full reverse thrust and brakes, stopping just before the grass.

Co-pilot to Pilot. "It may be fecking short but just look how wide it is".

or was that a Quantas Jet?

Nutty
 
'Don't sack' wrong airport pilots

Mar 30 2006



A union has appealed to an airline not to sack the pilots who landed a Ryanair plane at a military airfield by mistake.

Capt Mervyn Granshaw, chairman of the British Airlines Pilots' Association, said lessons needed to be learned from the incident on Wednesday which saw the Ryanair flight from Liverpool land at Ballykelly airstrip, near Londonderry, five miles away from its intended destination at the City of Derry Airport.

Eirjet, which was operating the flight on behalf of Ryanair from Liverpool, apologised for the incident, which is now being investigated by the Government's air accident investigation branch.

Some of the 39 passengers were shaken by the incident but Eirjet insisted their safety had not been compromised.

Capt Granshaw said: "There are a number of reasons why this can happen. Clearly this is a very worrying issue. I ultimately hope that the airline operator does not summarily dismiss these people because we do need to learn.


Story continues Continue story
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"We have a fragile no-blame, open safety reporting culture. We recognise in aviation that human beings are fallible, from simple things like putting teabags in a milk jug to the other end of the spectrum of landing at the wrong runway. There are human failings.

"We know this in aviation and we try to put in place processes, checks, balances to make sure that we plug all those gaps."

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Ryanair said Eirjet's pilot had mistakenly believed he was on a visual approach to the City of Derry Airport. Eirjet said a full investigation would be carried out and the airline would co-operate fully with the Civil Aviation Authority, the Irish Aviation Authority and the Irish Republic's Department of Transport.

The company, which is based in Shannon, Co Clare, in the Republic, said: "Eirjet wish to stress that passenger safety was not compromised and the incident involved the aircraft landing at a runway which is exactly in line with the main runway at City of Derry Airport. The airline places paramount importance on passenger safety, a fact which will be borne out by the investigation into the matter."

Eirjet apologised to the passengers for any inconvenience caused.
 
Probably the wrong forum, but did any of you guys see The Sun on 22 April?

A 60 ft live pipe bomb has been found under the runway at Daedalus.
I spent six months there in late 70s, and I wonder how many of the aircrew civ and pusser (801 squadron?) doing circuits and bumps have some thoughts on this phenomenon ?
 
Whilst controlling two hawks back into Yeovilton from the West I pointed them at the runway on a glorious day, told them where to look, and asked them to advise me when they had the airfield visual.

Up at 24,000 feet they could see for miles and had no problem spotting the runways. Job done I sat back as they told me they were changing frequency to tower.

Oh how Merryfield were suprised as they flew through their helicopter circuit............Oops wrong airfield!
 

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