Southwest Pilot: 'I Assume I’m Not at Your Airport'

Audio recordings released this week by the Federal Aviation Administration reveal the initial confusion of both the pilots and air traffic controllers in Branson, Mo., when a Southwest 737 landed at the wrong airport in January.

"I assume I'm not at your airport," one of the pilots said after landing seven miles away at a small county airport in Missouri.

"4013, um, have you landed?" asks Branson air traffic control.

"Yeah," the pilot replies.

Southwest Airlines Flight 4013 took off from Chicago’s Midway International Airport and was headed to the entertainment mecca of Branson, Mo., carrying 124 passengers and five crew. Instead of landing at Branson Airport, however, the Boeing 737 landed at Taney County Airport seven miles away. According to the respective websites, the longest runway at Taney County’s M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport is 3,738 feet; Branson’s is more than a mile long at 7,140 feet.

All passengers and crew were safe, although the pilot needed to slam on the brakes on the short runway and narrowly missed going over an embankment.

The air traffic controller at Branson then called another facility to ask about the plane, saying, “Did you watch Southwest land?" When told ‘yes’, the controller asked specifically, "Did you see it come here? They're saying it landed at the wrong airport."

"Are you kidding?" comes the reply.

"Yeah, no, I'm not,” the controller said.

Travel Pulse wrote in January that, sadly, this is not uncommon.

“Oh, it’s happened many times and it’s not complicated as to why. The single most common reason is complacency,” retired pilot and aviation consultant Capt. Barry Schiff told TravelPulse.com. “Pilots sometimes just don’t double-check their positions, or don’t use their navigational aids. That’s pretty much all there is to it. It’s one of those dumb mistakes.”