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Southwest grounds pilots that landed at wrong airport in Taney County; plane takes off without incident
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The pilots of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 that landed at the wrong airport Sunday have been grounded, according to a Southwest spokesman. A replacement team, meanwhile, lifted off without incident at 3 p.m., despite dealing with a runway half the size of the airport where the plane was supposed to land.
Brandy King told the Associated Press that grounding the pilots involved is common while the airline and federal aviation officials investigate the apparent mistake. The captain is in his 15th year flying for Southwest, King said.
Flight 4013 was carrying 124 passengers and five crew members when it touched down Sunday evening at the M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport in Taney County. Its intended landing was the Branson Airport, about eight miles away.
The M. Graham Clark has a runway that is only 3,738 feet, according to its website. Branson Airport, on the other hand, has a runway size typical for commercial traffic — about 7,140 feet long.
Based on Boeing documents, a lightly loaded 737-700 can take off from a runway such as the one at the M. Graham Clark airport. Prior to takeoff, Airport Manager Mark Parent stressed that runway length is just one factor that goes into determining whether the aircraft can take off safely.
“They will do their homework on that, and I don’t have any concern at this point,” he said.
The Monday takeoff attracted a small crowd of onlookers, despite occurring hours later than officials originally said it could. The plane took off to the west, and an online flight tracker indicated it was headed for Tulsa.
Chief Chris Berndt of the Western Taney County Fire District, which responded when the plane landed Sunday evening, said the plane came to a stop a “few hundred feet” from the end of the runway closest to U.S. 65. A 50-foot-high gravel bank drops off abruptly at the end of the runway.
Parent said a Boeing 737 had never landed at the small airfield, which opened in 1970 and normally handles light jets, turboprops and small aircraft for charter, corporate and tourism markets. Originally managed by the nearby College of the Ozarks, Taney County officially took over operation of the airport in 2005 in a deal designed to keep the facility from closing.
No one was around at the airport when the Southwest flight landed. Airport staffers had gone home about an hour earlier but were called back after the unexpected arrival, Parent said.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the incident.
Jeff Bourk, executive director of the Branson Airport, said in a statement today that, at the time of the incorrect landing, “the Branson Airport was operating normally, weather conditions were good, the control tower was open and the airport was ready for aircraft operations.”
Missouri Senator Roy Blunt called on federal regulators to do a “thorough investigation.”
“I’ve landed at this airport and it’s tough to navigate in small planes — let alone in an aircraft this size,” Blunt said in a statement this morning. “People have every right to assume that they will arrive at their correct destination.”
In a statement, Southwest said the company is cooperating with the authorities.
“We continue to look into the circumstances which led the pilot in command of flight 4013 from Chicago Midway to land at the airport, several miles from the Branson Airport we serve,” the company said.
Passenger Scott Schieffer said Southwest refunded the cost of his ticket and gave him two $200 vouchers as a result of the incident.
Sunday’s event was the second time in less than two months that a large jet has landed at the wrong airport. In November, a Boeing 747 that was supposed to deliver parts to McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan., landed 9 miles north at Col. James Jabara Airport. That plane was flown by a two-person crew and had no passengers.
The M. Graham Clark Airport has been tricky for pilots in the past.
In August 2004, five people died at the airport when the private plane they were in “ran off the runway on takeoff, plummeted down a ravine and burst into flames,” according to News-Leader archives.
And in December 1999, six people were killed when their plane crashed in the Ruth and Paul Henning Conservation Area, about three miles away from the airport.
As for Southwest, it only needs to find Branson Airport for another five months. The airline announced in December that it will cease serving the city in June.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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