NTSB Alert Targets Wrong-Airport Landings

Stephen Pope

Tuesday, May 05, 2015 at 09:19 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued two safety recommendations to the FAA to prevent aircraft from landing at the wrong airport.
These recommendations propose that controllers withhold landing clearance until an aircraft has passed all other airports that could be confused with the destination, and that Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW) software be modified to alert controllers when an aircraft is headed for the wrong airport.
The NTSB's recommendations were prompted by high-profile incidents, including a Boeing 747 Dreamlifter mistakenly landing in Wichita, Kansas, and a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 landing at the wrong airport in Branson, Missouri.

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The National Transportation Safety Board has issued two safety recommendations aimed at preventing wrong-airport landings like those in Wichita, Kansas, and Branson, Missouri, that attracted substantial media attention.

The Safety Board recommended to the FAA that controllers withhold landing clearance until the aircraft has passed all other airports that might be confused with the destination airport. The Board is also calling on the FAA to modify minimum safe altitude warning (MSAW) software to alert controllers when an aircraft could be headed for the wrong airport.