FORT MYERS, Fla. – We don’t know what the captain of an American Airlines flight uttered after mistaking Page Field for Southwest Florida International, and almost landing an Airbus A320 at the general aviation airport in Fort Myers on Thursday.
But the language probably was stronger than “Oops.”
Thankfully, air traffic controllers directed the aircraft to the right airport where the FlightAware tracking software indicates it landed about 25 minutes late.
According to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration, American Airlines Flight 862 departed from Philadelphia and landed safely at Southwest Florida International shortly before 2 p.m. Thursday.
When the mistaken approach at Page became known, the FAA said, “air traffic controllers quickly directed the flight back on course to Southwest Florida International,” the commercial airport about 7½ miles from Page Field.
“The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into the operation,” agency spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told The News-Press.
How common are mistaken landings or approaches?
“While we don’t have numbers available on this, it’s unusual,” Bergen said.
Pilots and aviation geeks are talking about the glitch and sharing the jetliner’s track as shown on FlightAware, on social media.
That buzz didn’t miss Mark Twombly a Sanibel resident and commercial pilot who skippers charter and corporate flights.
He figures the cockpit crew never had been to Southwest Florida International before and was flying under visual flight rules.
The northeastern alignment of the main runway at Page and that of the only runway at Southwest Florida International aren’t that different, he said.
Interpreting FlightAware data that’s available to anyone, Twombly said the plane descended to as low as 800 feet before the pilot must have realized the location error, and climbed up to 1,500 feet.
The plane was on approach to the larger of Page Field’s two runways, which is 6,400 feet long.
Southwest Florida International’s runway is 12,000 feet long, and can comfortably handle beefy aircraft such as the A320.
But as longtime Southwest Floridians know, Page Field was the region’s commercial airport until Southwest Florida International opened in May 1983.
“They used to land 727s at Page Field,” Twombly recalls.
The data suggests “there was really no danger,” Twombly said, adding: “No doubt they’re extremely embarrassed.”