LANDED WRONG ARPT.

Date: 1996-02 · Aircraft: Small Transport; Low Wing; 2 Recip Eng

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-clearance|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-landing-without-clearance|other-unspecified

Synopsis

LANDED WRONG ARPT.

Narrative

AT THE END OF AN ALL NIGHT FLT FROM LA (WHP) TO AURORA; CO (01V); ON IFR FLT PLAN; DEN APCH WAS GIVING RADAR VECTORS TO 01V. I LOOKED TO MY L AND OBSERVED AN ARPT AT MY 9 O'CLOCK POS (40 DEGS OFF L WING). I ASKED THE CTLR IF 01V (AURORA AIRPARK) WAS ON MY 9 O'CLOCK. THE CTLR STATED 'YES IT IS.' I ADVISED DEN APCH THAT I WAS CANCELING IFR AND ENTERING THE ARPT PATTERN. I WAS TOLD TO SQUAWK 1200 AND SWITCH TO UNICOM. I BROADCAST ON UNICOM (122.8) AND WAS ADVISED RWY 14 WAS ACTIVE. I NOTED THAT THE LOCATION APPEARED TO HAVE A TWR AND COULD POSSIBLY BE A CLOSED AIRBASE OPEN FOR GA LIKE SBD AND SOCAL INTL. THERE WAS NO VISIBLE TFC AT THE ARPT AND I LANDED. I NOTICED THAT THE RWYS WERE ALIGNED THE SAME AS MY ARPT DIAGRAM INDICATED INCLUDING THE SAME COMPASS HDG. ON TAXIING OFF THE RWY I WAS ADVISED ON UNICOM THAT I HAD LANDED AT BUCKLEY AIR NATIONAL GUARD (ANG) BASE. UPON TALKING TO BASE PERSONNEL; THEY INDICATED THAT THIS HAPPENS OCCASIONALLY DUE TO THE ARPT ORIENTATION AND CLOSE PROX TO AURORA AIRPARK. IT IS MY BELIEF THAT THIS COULD BE AVOIDED SEVERAL WAYS. 1) NOT RELYING ON ATC TO CONFIRM THE ARPT LOCATION WITHOUT XREF TO AVAILABLE NAVAIDS. 2) NOT RELYING ON PAST EXPERIENCE WITH FORMER AIRBASES CONVERTED TO GA ARPTS; TO NOT QUESTION THE LOOK OF FACILITY (MORE THOROUGH REVIEW OF ARPT FACILITY DIRECTORY). MOST IMPORTANTLY THIS INCIDENT COULD BE PREVENTED FROM OCCURRING BY PROMINENTLY PLACING THE ARPT NAME OR IDENTIFIER ON THE RWY; OR TXWY OR NEAR COMPASS NUMBERS ON THE APCH END OF THE RWY. HAD I SEEN ANY ARPT NAME IN THE RWY OR TXWY ENVIRONMENT; I WOULD HAVE NOT LANDED AT THE FACILITY; ESPECIALLY SINCE BOTH ARPTS ARE IN CLOSE PROX AND HAVE THE SAME RWY HDGS.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.