MacDill (AFB) Logs Another Intrusion

[soup]

By RICHARD LARDNER The Tampa Tribune

Published: Oct 11, 2006

TAMPA - A pilot flying a small, twin-engine aircraft made an unauthorized landing at MacDill Air Force Base just a week after two teenagers in a stolen car raced through the main entrance to the heavily guarded military installation.

The proximity of the two events underscores the challenge of securing MacDill in an era when even an accidental intrusion might be misconstrued as a threat to the home of the military's two most important war-fighting organizations.

Although the pilot landed without incident, the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the episode, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.

The pilot, Neal G. Smith of Lexington, Ky., was in a Piper Seminole on the morning of Sept. 28 heading from Craig Municipal Airport in Jacksonville to Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Islands.
http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBYLV475TE.html

[Earth_First]

1. Not enough information in this story to draw a conclusion quite yet...

"A warning light suggesting a problem with the Piper's landing gear may have caused Smith to bring the plane down, Bergen said."

...is part of it, however it mentioned nothing about whether or not Smith was having communications difficulties. The claim was that it was a one-sided conversation on part of McDill with the pilot, however nothing more to address whether or not he was able to communicate back.

I'll wait until the story develops, however it sounds fairly straight-forwards to me.

[soup]

2. What bothers me about it

is Central Command is located in an area that is so vulnerable. From hurricanes to gate crashers to unauthorized landings.

>>Unauthorized aircraft landings at MacDill are infrequent, and the base doesn't make public announcements when they occur.

The usual cause is pilot error.

Although MacDill's runway is three times as long as Peter O. Knight's, the two fields are less than five miles apart - close enough to cause confusion for inexperienced pilots, said Dan McCune, safety officer at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach.

Business or recreational aircraft probably would not be on a military radio frequency, particularly if they thought they were coming in for a landing at the correct airport, he said. "I could see this mistake happening," said McCune, a former Army aviator.<<

[wakeme2008]

3. A) A Delta 727 mistook MacDill for Tampa International and landed there

and

B) Peter O. Knight runway is in line with one of the MacDill runways and they are close to one another.