A Vietnam Airlines A321 with over 200 passengers onboard landed on a wrong, unfinished runway. Civil aviation authorities are now questioning how and why.
From the Telegraph:
Vietnam Airlines Flight VN7344 from Ho Chi Minh City touched down on a runway still under construction and soon to be Nha Trang Cam Ranh International’s second landing strip. The runway is not yet connected to the airport and it remains unclear how the carrier will retrieve the stranded Airbus A321.
During landing, the aircraft’s engines sucked in “a number of foreign objects from the runway surface”, according to the Aviation Herald, and suffered minor damage.
The aircraft landed parallel to Cam Ranh’s single operational runway. The second runway is still under construction and slated to open up later this year.
This incident occurred last Sunday under clear weather conditions. Pending investigation, the crew on the flight has been suspended.
Under International Civil Aviation Organization (IACO) protocol, unfinished or improper runways should be marked with a large lit “X” to alert pilots to avoid it. It is not clear whether such a marker was present on the unfinished runway.
image: U.S. Air ForceCONCLUSION
This is certainly not the first time a flight crew landed on the wrong runway. Even so, I’m so thankful that no passengers were injured. It is another reminder, however, that attention to detail is critical and the consequences could have been far more dire.
You might be sure Lucky reads this since he has just booked a couple legs on VN….
I hope he reads my Vietnam Airlines review as well–
https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2018/02/20/vietnam-airlines-a350-business-class-review/
https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2018/02/19/review-vietnam-airlines-lotus-business-class-lounge-ho-chi-minh-city-sgn/
LOL, well with his luck from recents trips to the Seychelles, Angola, and recent illness..this is the last thing he needs! Hopefully no Houdini one like the last MH before his wedding with Ford..Ford is still too young to be a widow, just a joke!
lol wtf are they gonna do now? lay some pavers over the grass and try to tow it?
If TACA flight 110 is any indication, it’s realistic that the aircraft could be towed over a patch of grass/dirt, perhaps after all fuel is pumped out and parts of the interior removed, if needed, to reduce weight.
One has to wonder what state the unfinished runway is in. If it’s solid, I could see the plane taking off from said unfinished runway and ferrying to the correct finished runway.
That’s how Boeing got their Dreamlifter off a runway that it ought not have landed on in Wichita.
https://www.wired.com/2013/11/dreamlifter-wrong-airport/
The engines have already suffered FOD from debris ingestion during landing. I can’t imagine the airline or the authorities allowing it to fly again before inspections and repairs have been made?
First, good that nobody was injured.
While reading this, some memory flashes from the SQ incident in Taipeh airport in the past in which a SQ plane took the wrong runaway and was under construction..the plane crashed with some construction equipments during take off..still remembers the pics as if they were just yesterday. My father was onboard on that plane and was one of the luckiest to survive that fatal incident..
I always shrugged when I hear or read incidents on runaways like this! It was now 18 ago. I still rember the flight number SQ 006. It was a 747 with a rainbow like special livery and he was on his way to our relatives in LA so he was travelling to LAX with a stop in TPE. Mom and I was on our way back to JFK via FRA while we want to visit some German relatives. Dad sat on the upper deck in Raffles Class. He was lucky as he was comparingly mildly injured(mostly of smoke inhilation and twisted arm as well as back problems because of the impact)while others behind him were not so.