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Southwest Grounds Pilots Who Landed at Wrong Airport

** Branson Airport (Google Earth)**
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Key Takeaways:

  • A Southwest Airlines 737 mistakenly landed at the M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport near Branson, Missouri, on a runway significantly shorter than its intended destination.
  • The pilots had to brake hard to avoid overrunning the 3,738-foot runway and are now grounded pending internal and FAA investigations.
  • This incident is the second high-profile case in recent months of an aircraft landing at the wrong airport.
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The pilots of a Southwest Airlines 737 that mistakenly landed at the wrong airport near Branson, Missouri, won’t be flying again anytime soon pending an internal and FAA investigation into the incident, according to the airline.

The Southwest 737-700 departed Chicago Midway Airport on Sunday bound for the 7,140-foot runway at Branson Airport, but landed at about 6:25 p.m. on the much shorter Runway 12 at M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport 6 nm to the north. The pilots had to brake hard to avoid going off the end of the 3,738-foot runway, where there is a steep embankment leading down to a highway.

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