This story is a couple days old by now but that doesn't make it any less funny to me: last week a massive Boeing cargo plane - the biggest one they have, actually - landed at a small airport on the north side of Wichita, Kansas. The problem was they were supposed to land at a military base on the south side of Wichita, roughly 12 miles from where they were. The first question everyone had was how a mistake like this could me made, especially when you consider the airport they landed at didn't even have a tower and was not equipped to handle planes of this size. I know pilots say we all look the same from 30,000 feet but I wouldn't have suspected that saying would apply to airports as well. (I can only imagine how freaked out the people by that airport were since nothing that big had ever landed there before.) However, landing at the smaller airport wasn't just an 'oops' moment, it was a real problem. Due to its massive size this particular jet needs just under 9,200 feet of runway to take off when fully loaded. The airport the plan actually landed at only has about 6,200 feet of runway. For a full day they weren't quite sure if this plane was going to be able to take off. The good news is that someone did the math and figured out that if they didn't refuel the plane it would be lighter and need less space. Additionally they closed all the roads around the airport so that people would stop gawking and reduce the chance a car would get blown away by the jet engines. After that the plane took off and landed at the right airport without further incident. Still, I think we learned why these pilots were in charge of the plane which didn't have any passengers on it.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
So Close Yet So Far
If you watched the news at all this week you know that Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel period of the year. There were so many local reporters doing live broadcasts from Logan that if you were at the airport this week chances are you probably got more screen time on the news than the weekend sports anchor. However, despite the fact that all anyone wanted to talk about was weather conditions on Wednesday, I contend that this afternoon is probably an even busier travel time because there are plenty of people I know who left Tuesday or even Monday, but it seems like everyone I knew who was going away for the holiday made plans to come home on Sunday. Beyond that, it is not like the stakes are any lower today. Sure, it would be awful if the weather impacted your flight and you were late getting home for Thanksgiving but that is more of a personal problem, plus you would still have a couple days with your family. If you can't get back this afternoon it is likely you will miss work tomorrow and then it starts to be your coworkers' problem. No one wants to be the guy everyone in the office hates. Also, let's not act as though the travel is going to be much better than it was earlier this week. Sure, there isn't as much wind or rain up and down the East Coast but there are still plenty of people crowding the planes and increasing the hassles which are already associated with air travel for the average traveler to get hung up on. And some of those problems aren't even the traveler's fault, such as when the plane lands at the wrong airport.
This story is a couple days old by now but that doesn't make it any less funny to me: last week a massive Boeing cargo plane - the biggest one they have, actually - landed at a small airport on the north side of Wichita, Kansas. The problem was they were supposed to land at a military base on the south side of Wichita, roughly 12 miles from where they were. The first question everyone had was how a mistake like this could me made, especially when you consider the airport they landed at didn't even have a tower and was not equipped to handle planes of this size. I know pilots say we all look the same from 30,000 feet but I wouldn't have suspected that saying would apply to airports as well. (I can only imagine how freaked out the people by that airport were since nothing that big had ever landed there before.) However, landing at the smaller airport wasn't just an 'oops' moment, it was a real problem. Due to its massive size this particular jet needs just under 9,200 feet of runway to take off when fully loaded. The airport the plan actually landed at only has about 6,200 feet of runway. For a full day they weren't quite sure if this plane was going to be able to take off. The good news is that someone did the math and figured out that if they didn't refuel the plane it would be lighter and need less space. Additionally they closed all the roads around the airport so that people would stop gawking and reduce the chance a car would get blown away by the jet engines. After that the plane took off and landed at the right airport without further incident. Still, I think we learned why these pilots were in charge of the plane which didn't have any passengers on it.
This story is a couple days old by now but that doesn't make it any less funny to me: last week a massive Boeing cargo plane - the biggest one they have, actually - landed at a small airport on the north side of Wichita, Kansas. The problem was they were supposed to land at a military base on the south side of Wichita, roughly 12 miles from where they were. The first question everyone had was how a mistake like this could me made, especially when you consider the airport they landed at didn't even have a tower and was not equipped to handle planes of this size. I know pilots say we all look the same from 30,000 feet but I wouldn't have suspected that saying would apply to airports as well. (I can only imagine how freaked out the people by that airport were since nothing that big had ever landed there before.) However, landing at the smaller airport wasn't just an 'oops' moment, it was a real problem. Due to its massive size this particular jet needs just under 9,200 feet of runway to take off when fully loaded. The airport the plan actually landed at only has about 6,200 feet of runway. For a full day they weren't quite sure if this plane was going to be able to take off. The good news is that someone did the math and figured out that if they didn't refuel the plane it would be lighter and need less space. Additionally they closed all the roads around the airport so that people would stop gawking and reduce the chance a car would get blown away by the jet engines. After that the plane took off and landed at the right airport without further incident. Still, I think we learned why these pilots were in charge of the plane which didn't have any passengers on it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment