Delta Flight Lands at Air Force Base by Mistake

Rapid City Regional Airport Public Information Officer Toni Broom told ABC News “It’s an airline issue and it’s being handled by Delta”.

Two Delta Airlines pilots are grounded while the National Transportation Safety Board commences an investigation into Thursday night’s commercial plane mistakenly landing at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating Thursday’s incident. The airline has already started its own internal review.

The flight arrived at its intended destination at around 11.30pm.

There have been previous mistaken landings at Ellsworth, too, including a 2004 Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis. Armed military personnel walked through the cabin while the plane was at the base and passengers were ordered to keep their window shades closed.

Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant declined to offer any explanation of how the mistake happened and said the official explanation will arise from the investigation. That plane was also headed towards the Rapid City Regional Airport.

In most cases, the pilots were cleared by controllers to fly based on what they could see rather than relying on automation.

“Incidents like this occur when pilots fail to execute the basic measures of airmanship”, said Boswell.

The Taney County airport’s runway was half the length of the one at Branson Airport, where it was originally meant to land.

The landing strips of the civilian airport and the Air Force base are not only located in close proximity, but are also aligned in nearly the same direction, so the pilots made a wrong visual identification of their destination. The runway is considered 3,000 feet less than ideal for the plane, one of the largest in the world.

Garcia Cano reported from Sioux Falls, S.D.