Private jet lands at RAF Fairford instead of nearby Cotswold Airport

A civilian business jet landed at the United States-operated RAF Fairford on 12 September 2026 after its pilot confused the base with Cotswold Airport, roughly 11 miles to the west, according to an account of the incident.

The aircraft, a Cessna 560XLS+ registered D-CJMK and operated by VistaJet, arrived just after 09:00 local time. Security forces at the base launched an emergency response immediately after touchdown.

RAF Fairford is an active US Air Force facility and is currently hosting B-1B Lancer strategic bombers that have taken part in the US-Iran war, a deployment that has drawn controversy.

The pilot recognised the error and asked to depart straight away for the intended airfield. Base security instead required the aircraft to remain while interviews and paperwork were completed. The jet left for Cotswold Airport, commonly known as Kemble, about three hours later at 12:10.

The aircraft is a Citation Excel built in 2019. It is offered for private charters worldwide and has nine leather seats, power outlets and a private lavatory.

The proximity of Kemble and Fairford, along with their similar latitude and runway layout, has led to such mistakes before, which the account said likely helped resolve this one quickly. A comparable error was made by a US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III pilot in Florida in 2012, where a planned arrival field with a runway of more than 11,000 feet was confused with a much smaller airfield of 3,580 feet.