Local News: Massive 747 Dreamlifter Accidentaly Lands at Small, Private Airport.
 

Big news in Wichita.

Pilot thought he was landing at the local Air Force base, turns out be the small private airport near my home. Hilarious radio chatter of the Boeing pilots realizing what they've done.:D

http://www.ksn.com/news/local/audio-from-the-dreamlifter-pilot

Plane "needs" 9,000 feet to take off or land. Runway is 6000 feet. :D

They had to drive a tug on city streets to the airport to turn the barge around. :D

A special crew was flown in to handle the take off.

Jabara’s runway length is 6,101 feet – almost half the length of McConnell’s runway. There were skid marks at the end of the runway where the Dreamlifter stopped at Jabara, which is near 37th Street North and Webb Road.
Dreamlifter pilot talked to McConnell tower before landing at Jabara | Wichita Eagle

Whoa, never seen pics of that before. That's a big plane.

Wow, that's a crappy day at work*! :eek:



*Should go with out saying, but obviously loss of life and limb would be worse.

Where's a steam catapult when you need it??? :)

Live feed of the take off..
Fox News Live Video - Fox News


.

Departed safely...

Saw that one the news last night. Wonder how those pilot's performance evaluations will turn out. Happened a few years ago in Colorado. Pilot landed at a small airport in Hayden instead of the Steamboat Springs airport.

I'm thinking those pilots should write a Tom Walgamathesque travelogue.

I thought my life stunk when I made a wrong turn... yikes!

:D:D:D

Up, Up & Away.



On Thursday afternoon, it easily took off from Jabara, and landed without a hitch at its intended destination about 15 minutes later.

Officials shut down a highway near Jabara and surrounding roads as a safety precaution before the takeoff. A crowd gathered by Jabara to watch the plane take off from the 6,100-foot-long runway, which was about 3,000 feet shorter than is ideal for a plane so massive. Cheers were heard after the jet took off.

More than 10 hours after the mixup, an airport official said they had managed to turn around the "Dreamlifter" on the runway and had determined that it could take off on the shorter runway.

"They've assured us they've run all the engineering calculations...and the aircraft is safe for a normal departure at its current weight and conditions here," said Brad Christopher of the Wichita Airport Authority.

He said it took "more than a three-point turn" to get the plane turned around on the 100-foot-wide runway at Jabara Airport. "They were able to do a very good job," Christopher said.

The 747 aircraft, one of the largest cargo planes in the world, touched down safely at Jabara at 9:38 p.m. CT Wednesday — eight miles from where it was supposed to land.

Well, there was this in one of the articles:
Could be a preliminary version of the job eval.

Maybe their next assignment will be flying rubber dog poop out of Hong Kong? :D

What are you kidding? They'll get sent to the top notch training program... But I'm not sure they'll both be coming home.

MV

Imagine what went thru the pilots mind, while landing, when all of sudden he realized the runway was shorter than listed:eek:.