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Soon after touching down, the pilot of a cargo-hauling Boeing 747 jet seemed confused while talking to air traffic controllers.
When told he was 14 kilometres north of his intended destination, he made an unusual admission: "Uh, yes sir, we just landed at the other airport."
His jet had just landed on the wrong US runway - one that just happened to be long enough.
Over the radio, the pilot could be heard mixing up east and west, acknowledging he could not read his own handwriting and getting distracted from the conversation by "looking at something else".
The 747, flown by a two-person crew with no passengers, intended to touch down late on Wednesday at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas. It was supposed to deliver parts for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner to a company that makes large sections of the next-generation jet.
Instead, the cargo plane landed at the smaller Colonel James Jabara Airport.
The jet took off again on Thursday and within minutes landed at its original destination.
The plane flew into an area where there are three airports with similar runway configurations - the Air Force base, the Jabara airfield and a third facility inbetween called Beech Airport.
That could help explain the mistake. Pilots also say it can be tough to tell a long runway from a shorter one on final approach. And Jabara is directly on the path towards McConnell.
While it is rare for a pilot to land at the wrong airport, confusion is common.
Once every month or two, a pilot headed toward Mid-Continent Airport, Wichita's main commercial airport, begins to turn toward McConnell by mistake, said Brent Spencer, a former air traffic controller in Wichita who is now an assistant professor at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Mid-Continent and McConnell "have an almost identical runway set-up, so it was not at all uncommon for an airliner coming in from the east ... to pick up the wrong runway lights," he said. Jabara's runway length is towards the low end of what Boeing recommends for the 747.
Boeing owns the plane involved in the mistaken landing, but it is operated by Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, a New York company that provides crews and planes for businesses.
An Atlas Air spokeswoman declined to answer questions and referred inquiries to Boeing.
Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said the company would be consulting with Atlas to "find out exactly what happened so that it doesn't happen again".
The Federal Aviation Administration planned to investigate whether the pilot violated any federal regulations.


Confusion of pilot who landed Boeing at wrong airport in Wichita, Kansas

The Boeing 747 jet takes off from Colonel James Jabara Airport in Wichita after it mistakenly landed there on Wednesday. Photo: AP

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Soon after touching down, the pilot of a cargo-hauling Boeing 747 jet seemed confused while talking to air traffic controllers.


Confusion of pilot who landed Boeing at wrong airport in Wichita, Kansas

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Soon after touching down, the pilot of a cargo-hauling Boeing 747 jet seemed confused while talking to air traffic controllers.

Soon after touching down, the pilot of a cargo-hauling Boeing 747 jet seemed confused while talking to air traffic controllers.