There’s been three notable incidents of late in which flight crew have mistakenly landed at the wrong airport – see the Dreamlifter, a C-17 and a Southwest 737. A third was almost added this past Tuesday morning when an Air India Boeing 787-8 registered VT-ANM mistook Melbourne’s Essendon Airport for Melbourne International Airport (Tullamarine).
Operating AI301 from Sydney to Melbourne VT-ANM approached and crossed Melbourne from the east following usual tracking paths for aircraft inbound from the north-east to YMML’s active Runway 34.
The flight crew initiated a right turn to lining up for Essendon’s Runway 35 mistaking it for YMML’s Runway 34. Essendon Airport is located 4.5nm to southeast of Melbourne International Airport, and has a similar cross-runway layout to Melbourne with the runway headings only offset 1 degree.
