A Shuttle America flight Friday was aiming for University Park Airport (UNV) in Pennsylvania, when it touched down at Mid-State Regional Airport (PSB). The airports are 11 nautical miles apart, offer identical runway orientation — 16/34 and 6/24 — with different layouts, and both fields are non-towered (a reminder to self-announce, listen AND look when operating near a non-towered field). The two airports also have a VOR situated roughly between them. “When the pilot walked in, he said ‘Here’s one for the news,'” airport worker Joanne Shields told the Centre Daily. The eight passengers had to wait on board, for security reasons, for about an hour until a van was dispatched to finish their journey. Those familiar with the two airports say it was a relatively easy mistake to make for VFR pilots. The pilot was apparently unfamiliar with the area but there were ways to check. Aside from the VOR, both airports have an ILS. The airport spokesman said that after the pilot phoned his dispatcher, a long stream of forms started coming out of the fax machine. “I guess he had to report it as an incident of some sort,” Shields said.
…A Commercial Flight Lands At The Wrong Airport…
Key Takeaways:
- A Shuttle America flight mistakenly landed at Mid-State Regional Airport (PSB) instead of its intended destination, University Park Airport (UNV), which are only 11 nautical miles apart.
- The error was attributed to the pilot's unfamiliarity with the area and the airports' identical runway orientations and non-towered status, which made it a "relatively easy mistake."
- Passengers were delayed for about an hour on the aircraft before ground transportation was arranged, and the pilot was required to file an incident report.
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