Revealed: Passenger plane lands at the WRONG airport after pilots ignore their navigation equipment 

  • Sriwijaya Air flight was travelling from Medan to Padang, both in Indonesia
  • Pilot was on first flight to the airport but spotted another airport en route
  • He thought the navigation may have been wrong so decided to ignore it

By Qin Xie For Mailonline

Published: 07:21 EST, 11 October 2016 | Updated: 07:21 EST, 11 October 2016

A passenger plane touched down at the wrong airport after pilots ignored on-board navigation equipment and made a visual approach to land.

The Sriwijaya Air flight was scheduled to travel from Medan to Padang, both in Indonesia.

But, according to reports, instead of arriving at the new airport, the aircraft landed in a military-only airfield that hasn't been used by commercial flights since 2005.

The Sriwijaya Air flight was scheduled to travel from Medan to Padang but ended up at the wrong airport (file photo)

The Sriwijaya Air flight was scheduled to travel from Medan to Padang but ended up at the wrong airport (file photo)

The pilots were following a landing chart , which showed the flight path for landing
On the day of the flight, the pilots only had a black and white copy (pictured), which didn't clearly indicate there was another airport en route

The pilots were following a landing chart (left and right), which showed the flight path for landing.  On the day of the flight, the pilots only had a black and white copy (right), which didn't clearly indicate there was another airport en route

The incident took place on October 13, 2012, but the country's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) only released its final report on Monday.

Flight SJ-21 was travelling with 96 passengers and six members of crew at the time.

It was scheduled to descend into the new Minangkabau International Airport in Padang but as the pilots made the approach, they spotted the runway for Tabing Airport, which was seven nautical miles (eight miles) away.

The airport had been in commercial use until 2005 but is now a military-only airport according to the Aviation Herald.

HOW THE FLIGHT ERROR HAPPENED 

 Pictured above is the flight chart in the NTSC report showing the trajectory of the plane

 Pictured above is the flight chart in the NTSC report showing the trajectory of the plane

The pilot reported to Minangkabau Airport controllers, located at point 1, at an altitude of 6,000ft.

They were instructed to proceed to Bayur at point 2 and descend to 5,000ft to make their approach for landing. 

As they travelled to point 3 to make their approach, the pilots spotted the airstrip for Tabbing Airport, at almost the same trajectory.

They communicated with air traffic controllers that the airport was in sight without knowing it was the wrong one.

The pilots were cleared to land at point 4 and touched down at Tabbing Airport at point 5.

NTSC's report revealed that, despite the fact that the on-board navigation equipment was working, the pilots decided to make the visual approach to Tabing Airport airport as they thought the instruments might have been wrong, based on previous experience.

The report said that the unclear information given by the landing chart may also have reduced 'the pilot awareness to the adjacent airport with similar runway direction and dimension'.

It had been the first time both the captain and the pilot have flown to the airport, which may have also contributed to the error.

However, they were able to land the aircraft without incident. 

MailOnline Travel has contacted Sriwijaya Air for additional comments. 

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