Jet almost landed at private airfield

Dec 13 2006 Daily Post

THE crew of a passenger jet which had flown from Liverpool with 148 people on board almost landed at a private airfield, rather than at an international airport, after a runways mix-up, an accident report revealed yesterday.

An air traffic controller had to tell the crew of the Belfast-bound Boeing 737 to "climb immediately, I say again climb immediately", to prevent a landing on the wrong runway.

The crew had mistaken Langford Lodge airfield's runway for the runway at Belfast International Airport about 3½ miles away, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report said.

The crew of the Boeing, being operated by Spanish airline Futura, which had flown from Liverpool on a charter arrangement for low-cost carrier easyJet, eventually landed safely at Belfast International on the afternoon of July 18 this year.