Landing at the wrong airport is obviously not something to be taken lightly.  Not because of the mistake itself--oftentimes these mistakes have no threat to the cargo or passengers on board and result in a safe landing.  The part that makes it a concern is the implications that pilots may not be aware of what's going on. As pilots, we are taught to have a very good situational awareness.  Landing at an airport demonstrates a complete lack of situational awareness—and that’s the main concern. The two incidents already discussed--both the Dreamlifter and 747--are the most pro dominant, but this is not the first time this has happened.  On Sept 7th, 2011, Continental Connections flight 3222 was inbound for a destination of Lake Charles, LA. It landed at the wrong airport that was eight miles away.  

Some of the hazards of this kind of mistake are very obvious. Others, not so obvious.  In this incident--and those mentioned earlier--no harm was done to passengers or the cargo. If everything goes well, when landing at the wrong airport there is no damage done.  There are the obvious problematic implications; that the runway may not longer be enough for takeoff, or possible fuel problems that may occur if a plane needed to make another takeoff or landing. The less obvious implications, I think, are more regulatory ones.  What if that additional landing would put the pilots over their rest requirements? Could the pilot landing at the wrong airport be a sign that the pilot is already fatigued and shouldn't be flying anyway?  It also adds another landing and takeoff to keep in mind in oncoming up to the next inspection.

Of course, there are reasons for mistakes.  There are reasons for every mistake in every field. And every mistake in every field can always be attributed to an error somewhere. And, in a perfect world, those mistakes can always be avoided. But this isn't a perfect world. We, as humans, in any field are going to make mistakes. I don't know...maybe I just don't think like a lawyer like most of this country does. However, I do believe incidents like this aren't as big of a deal as their made out to me.  Don't misunderstand me, landing at the wrong airport IS a mistake and corrective actions should be taken, however I do feel as thought he media has taken these more recent events and blown them a tad out of proportion. 

A google search of "airplane lands at the wrong airport" yields dozens of the same result.  It takes a little bit of playing with the words to find other incidents--and there are other incidents--of Commercial aviation making a meatier mistakes. While these incidents are not entirely isolated, they are very overhyped in the media, it would seem.  And a little bit of circumstance should be taken into consideration when evaluating these incidents.  Even in the article Al Yuman explains that with regionals they may be working the same amount of hours but have more takeoffs and landings.  I would be interested in a survey conducted on percentages comparing regional and major mistakes. If you are doing something more often, there is more room for error than if a task is only being performed once in a shift.

But even though these incidents aren't entirely isolated, that also does not mean there should be no ramification when the mistake is made.  In the case on Sept 7th, 2011, the pilots were both suspended, but with pay. I do feel that is a fair disciplinary action,  Largely because it accepts that safety was not compromised, but that some things need to be evaluated to ensure this does not happen again. To me, this shows a company willing to he improve their employees and their customer service--too learn from their mistakes--rather than discard them. 

Aviation is a field that is constantly changing and should itself be constantly improving. Moving forward is to get away from the mentality of "cut off the hand of a thief" and instead teach the thieves to not steal. There will always be mistakes.  It is part of what makes us human. As long as we retain that humanity--the essence as a species--we need to accept that these mistakes will happen, and perhaps review the consequence on an individual basis and come with ways to correct it in the future.  Instead of overdramatizing the mistakes, and making people feel as if certain aspects of aviation are not, accept that mistakes will happen and move forward!

 Allons-y!