Based on the NTSB's investigation of two recent airline flights that landed at wrong airports because of confusion with other near-by airports, the agency today issued two recommendations to the FAA intended to help avoid those situations. The recommendations ask the FAA to clarify air traffic controller landing clearances when multiple airports are in the vicinity and to modify air traffic control software which warns air traffic controllers when aircraft have descended below a minimum safe altitude. This software is intended to alert controllers when an aircraft gets too close to terrain or objects in the aircraft's flight path. The NTSB last year issued warnings to airline pilots on maintaining vigilance to avoid wrong airport landings, giving pilots specific recommendations of what they could do. Today's recommendations are addressed to the FAA as the agency responsible for air traffic control.
The most recent wrong airport landings that prompted these recommendations are Southwest Airlines Flight 4013, a Boeing 737, that mistakenly landed at the wrong airport in Branson, Missouri on January 12, 2014 and Atlas Airlines Flight 4241, a cargo flight, that landed at the wrong airport in Wichita, Kansas. The Southwest flight landed at M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport, 6 miles north of its intended destination, Branson Airport. The runway the Boeing 737 landed on was only 3,738 feet long, instead of the runway it was supposed to land on at Branson which was 7,140 feet. The Atlas incident occurred on November 21, 2013 and involved a Boeing 747 cargo flight destined for McConnell Air Force Base and cleared to land on a 12,000 foot runway. Instead, the aircraft landed at Colonel James Jabara Airport on a runway that was only 6,100 feet. In addition to the significantly shorter runway length, the NTSB report noted that several other airport operations occurred during the time the 747 was on the wrong runway, further negatively affecting safety. No injuries were reported in either incident.
Based on these incidents, as well as other military and civilian wrong airport landings in the last 3 years, the NTSB recommends that the FAA "amend air traffic control procedures so that controllers withhold landing clearance until the aircraft has passed all other airports that may be confused with the destination airport" and "modify the minimum safe warning altitude (MSAW) software to apply the MSAW parameters for the flight plan destination airport to touchdown" rather than change the airport based on the observed (and possibly incorrect) flight path. Although the MSAW criteria was not a factor in the Southwest Airlines incident because the aircraft was below the radar coverage area, in the Atlas Airlines incident if the software had been programmed to the destination airport, it would have alerted controllers that the aircraft was below the expected glide path.
The FAA is required by law to respond to the NTSB's recommendations within 90 days, indicating whether it will accept the NTSB's recommendations in whole, or in part, or not at all.
