Air Force C-17 Lands At Wrong Airport

[jnelsoninjax]

Air Force officials are trying to figure out why an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo jet heading to MacDill Air Force Base instead landed at Peter O. Knight Airport this afternoon.

The plane, flown by a crew from the 305th Air Mobility Wing at McGuire Air Force Basee in New Jersey, was arriving from Southwest Asia carrying 23 passengers and 19 crew when it made an "unscheduled landing," according to Sgt David Carbajal, a McGuire spokesman. There appears to have been no damage to the aircraft or the airport, said Carbajal.

Air Force officials still do not know why the plane landed at the small civilian airfield on Davis Islands. The incident, said Carbajal, is under investigation.

The Air Force is planning to move the plane, said Carbajal, who did not immediately have details about how or when.

The flight was in support of U.S. Central Command, based at MacDill, Carbajal said.

Mistaken landings at nearby airfields are not unheard of across the country, but most occur at night by commercial or general aviation pilots. In 1980, a Delta Air Lines Boeing 727 bound for Tampa International Airport with 90 passengers landed safely in bad weather at MacDill.

The main runway at Peter O. Knight is 3,580 feet long and 100 feet wide, aligned in the same direction as MacDill's runway that is 11,421 feet long and 151 feet wide.

An unloaded C-17 is able to take off on an austere runway 90 feet wide and as short as 3,000 feet load, depending upon its fuel load and local temperatures, according to various Air Force and Government Accountability Office documents.

Ryan Gucwa, a pilot, was getting ready to get in his Piper Navajo and take off from the airport when he looked up and saw "this huge C-17 coming in over the top of the shipping port."

Seeing military airplanes over Peter O. Knight was not unusual, Gucwa said, but "this was only 100 feet off the ground and that is bizarre. Once the wheels touched the ground, I was terrified that there was no way to stop in time."

The nose landing gear of the cargo jet stopped about six to 10 feet from the end of the runway, said Gucwa, who took cell phone video of the landing.

The plane, he said, had markings from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. Officials there would not immediately comment.

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[Growled Member]

They must have had some mechanical problems.