Landing on The Wrong Carrier

Back in the day when a Navy aviator would land on the wrong ship, sometimes his plane would be adorned with graffiti before he was sent on his way. Gotta love the "Must be Air Force". No idea how long this practice took place...
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This is hysterical

 

LMAO!

 

This happened all the time during action in the Pacific during WW2 and I think that is where it started. A couple of times though . the wrong carrier was the only one left.

 

Yes... when the plane's carrier was gone... or on fire.

 

I am sure when one is in combat you get a pass. This is for fools who cannot tell the difference between carriers. Does that really happen?!

 

LOL!!!! One would think????

"Flying along, big number on the bow - "43" - Opps, this is not my boat..."

 

Not just carriers. We had a Navy T-33 on a cross-country call tower at Cannon AFB, NM and say he was entering the pattern for an overhead full stop. Tower told him they did not have him in sight. Pilot came back with field in sight, pitching out. He did, and made a full stop at Clovis Municipal Airport about 10 miles from Cannon and on the wrong side of Clovis. About 100 F-111Ds missing from the ramp, too. The Navy grounded the two pilots and sent someone else to pick up the T-33.

 

Kind of like the NWA airliner that landed at Ellsworth AFB instead of Rapid City. I would think as you started seeing all of the B-1s on the ramp the cockpit went completely silent for a while while the pilots contemplated their next career.

 

Not only T-33s inadvertently landing at a civilian airfield. On Friday, Sept. 29, 1972, an FB-111A from the 380th BMW at Plattsburgh AFB landed by mistake on a much smaller runway at Clinton County Airport in Plattsburgh, NY. Aircraft had to be partially disassembled to clear obstacles on public roads and then towed to its base.
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I'm suspect it still happens. In my carrier ops days during Vietnam sometimes an aircraft that needed to land ASAP soon after launching couldn't get back onto his ship because it was configured for launch, not recovery and would go to a sister carrier. Usually, there were two or three operating in close proximity. But, even though the pilot didn't have a choice the aircraft was tagged, but not as extensively. All in good fun.

 

And don't forget this one!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkuqsd_tRHw[/ame]

 

That was discussed here at length, and it was mentioned there was a back-story to this intentional landing as a potential alternative backup plan, because, the US President was in the area....

 

Then there was MacDill Field and Drew Field in Tampa, just a few miles apart. Many times an airplane reported on final to one when they were approaching the other.

 

Bill- The FB-111A landing was before my time since I did not start flying F-111Ds until 1974. Had not heard that one. Must have been a weight issue, since a lightly loaded FB-111A could take-off in way less than 3000'. Not if she is leaving ruts in the runway, though. Really big brakes, which she probably needed that day.

 

The incident was the result of several abnormal factors. To quote a U.S.A.F Major who was knowledgeable about the flight:

"I'm very familiar with that short flight of 69-6508. This flight became known as the "Polish cross country" as both members of the crew had Polish names. The mission was a CCTS night sortie at KPBG. This was the end of summer and as usual a great deal of construction was in progress. Among other things a significant number of the runway lights were inoperative making the runway appear much shorter than it actually was. The weather on the night of the mishap was terrible - raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock! Shortly after takeoff the CADC malfunctioned which resulted in a lot of warning lights and the accompanying audio. The crew elected to abort the mission and return to KPBG. They requested and received a GCA to runway 17. This approach was controlled by a student controller and resulted in the airplane being well right of centerline. At about 2 miles the crew sighted a lighted runway dead ahead and assuming it to be runway 17 at Plattsburgh proceeded to land."

Details can be found at FB-111A.net.

Kudos to the crew for minimizing airframe damage and the absence of injuries.

Taz - What is a CADC? Thanks.

 

But at least variable-geometry wings made the job less difficult than it might have been.

 

Bill- CADC is central air data computer. Bad thing to have go wrong in bad weather. Can affect primary instruments, fuel scheduling, flight control gains, etc.

Yup, the wingspan varied greatly with wing-sweep. One reason MacNamara was initially able to sell it to the Navy. But it got too heavy for carrier ops.