Post date: Jan 13, 2014 4:21:41 PM
A Southwest Airlines jet lands at the wrong airport in the U.S. state of Missouri.
POINT LOOKOUT, MISSOURI, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 12, 2013) (NBC) - A Southwest Airlines jet landed at the wrong airport near Branson, Missouri in the United States on Sunday night (January 12).
Flight 4013 departed Chicago-Midway and was scheduled to land at Branson Airport. But it landed unexpectedly at a tiny airport about 7 miles (11.27km) away from its intended destination on a runway half the size as the larger facility.Jeff Bourke is the Executive Director of Branson Airport.
"I have a statement from Southwest Airlines regarding tonight's event. Southwest Airlines' pilot in command of flight 4013 safely landed at PLK Graham M Clark Downtown airport this evening. TheBoeing 737-700 carried 124 customers and a crew of five and was operating as a scheduled flight from Chicago Midway to Branson. Our ground crew from the Branson airport has arrived at the airport to take care of the customers and their baggage. The landing was uneventful, and all customers and crew are safe. All the passengers have now been transported back to the Branson Airport and will get back out on their flights later this evening."
Passengers on the flight said they realised something was wrong when they landed.
"You could feel like something was wrong, but we decided it was maybe turbulence. And then we hit the runway really hard and really fast. We stopped. And then all of a sudden you just smelled like rubber really strong, like through the whole cabin, and we all looked at each other like something is not right," said one woman.
"Well, we had a really rough landing, we were all like moving really close to the seats as we were landing because the runway, I guess, is too short for the plane. And so then they just came on and said that we had landed at the wrong runway," said another woman.
It was not immediately clear if the plane landing was a mistake or if the pilot changed the destination because of an emergency. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.