Lefty, this ever happen to you?

[smackaholic]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companie ... &ocid=iehp

Seems as though this is more on ATC than the pilot.

[Rooster]

It's happened to me while landing on an oil platform. After 50 or 60 landings all in a particular field, they all begin to seem the same. Granted, it's that kind of complacency that kills people, but it happens-- especially if you live and work out there. Hours will go by and I'd have trouble recalling any details of the last bajillion take offs and landings. I'd need to look at my paperwork to see just where I'd been. Of course when it happened, many minutes would go by until someone would peek up over the deck and give me the "what's up" shrug or go and check the trunk to see if they were getting some equipment they weren't expecting. Either that or the field foreman would come up on the radio and ask where I was.

I'd think that a wrong airport for an airliner would be a bit more problematic. Your nav equipment and GPS would be screaming at you that you were X amount of miles from your destination, unlike my situation where you've just got a Post-It note giving you a list of 30 platforms you've got to go to before lunch.

[Left Seater]

Yeah Rooster hit this one on the head. Your routing and way points and filed flight plan all must be forgotten for this to happen. ATC sure didn't help but this is on the pilots. Unless they were cleared for a visual from 30 miles away and they reported having the field in site maybe, but this is how people get killed. The controller had to think that Delta was miles away from where he actually was.

I am currently flying around Asia on a 6 week assignment and I have seen some strange stuff but not this.