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WASHINGTON — Just call him "Wrong-Way Colgan."
A pilot for Colgan Air, which operated the Continental Connection flight that crashed in Clarence Center due to pilot error in 2009, landed at the wrong airport in Louisiana on Sept. 7.
Bound for Lake Charles, Continental Connection Flight 3222 from Houston, with 23 passengers and three crew members aboard, touched down instead at Southland Field, a private airport eight miles to the southwest in Carlyss, La.
After some confusion, passengers were bused back to Lake Charles — and Colgan once again found itself on the defensive over the quality of its pilots.
"I can't help but note that this landing error occurred at 10:29 p.m., and Continental Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, crashed at 10:17 p.m. — two late-night flights," said Karen Eckert, whose sister Beverly Eckert was among the 50 people who were killed in that February 2009 crash.
"Even though, thankfully, no lives were lost this time, you have to wonder if the pilots were again fatigued, distracted or just inept — issues we have targeted for improvement with our Airline Safety Act," which passed Congress last year.
A spokesman for Pinnacle Airlines, Colgan's parent, termed the mistake an isolated incident — but one the airline is taking seriously.
"The crew is relieved of duty while we conduct a thorough investigation to ensure that we have all of the facts," said Joe Williams, director of corporate communications for Pinnacle. "Safety is a top priority for Colgan, and when the investigation is complete, we will file a report with the FAA and take any actions that are warranted."
Landing at the wrong airport "has got to be one of the most embarrassing things that can happen to a pilot," said Rory Kay, an aviation safety consultant and captain for a major international airline.
And it's been happening at least since 1938, when Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan flew out of New York bound for Long Beach, Calif. — but ended up in Ireland instead in what many later dismissed as a publicity stunt.
In fact, according to a Web-based compilation of incidents that Kay cited, the Louisiana incident is at least the 24th time a pilot landed in the wrong place in the last 15 years.
Those incidents have occurred all over the world — but this is the third time a regional plane operated on behalf of Continental has accidentally landed in Carlyss instead of Lake Charles.
It's an easy mistake for a pilot to make because the two airports are close to each other and on the same latitude, said Sam Larsh, manager of Southland Field.
In the case of Flight 3222, the trouble apparently began when an air traffic controller in Houston cleared the pilot to make a visual approach, meaning the crew was relying on its judgment rather than autopilot to guide the plane to its destination.
"If you're coming from Houston at night, you're flying across a big area of black," Larsh said. "You look out, and there's an airport. You're flying at 200 mph, and there's a reason for a pilot to think: 'Oh, there it is,'" although the airport with the commercial passenger terminal is still 8 miles away.
That would not have happened if the plane were on autopilot and if it had been programmed correctly, which is what would happen in most countries.
"I can't think of another country" that still allows controllers to clear pilots for a visual approach and allows them to land the plane on their own, Kay said.
Nevertheless, Kay acknowledged, the incident raises questions about the plane's pilot.
"What was the level of training and direction given to the guy?" he asked.
Rep. Kathleen C. Hochul, the Amherst Democrat whose district includes the Clarence site of the Flight 3407 crash, is asking the same question.
She said she's preparing a letter, to be signed by other lawmakers and sent to Colgan and Continental, expressing concern about the Louisiana incident.
"It's absolutely unacceptable that we have another incident here that's causing us to question whether pilots are getting sufficient training, whether they had enough rest," Hochul said.
Larsh said the incident at his airport brought to mind the Buffalo-area crash, too.
The night it happened, Larsh's cellphone roused him out of bed, and the caller ID said "Colgan," as an airline official was calling to tell him what happened.
"I was thinking: Colgan, Colgan — why does that name sound familiar?" Larsh said. "And then I thought: 'Buffalo.'"
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