A Boeing dreamlifter aircraft landed at a different Kansas airport than it was supposed to Wednesday Bloomberg reported.
The Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings 747-400, an altered jet with a bigger body touched down at Jabara Airport instead of McConnell Air Force Base shortly before 10 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration told Bloomberg. The government department is looking into why the plane arrived where it did.
"A 6,100-foot runway, while more suited to small and mid-sized jets, should be long enough for the Atlas plane to lift off with minimal fuel and no cargo," David Esser, a professor of aeronautical science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Daytona Beach, Fla. campus told Bloomberg. "In their minds, they are thinking our airport has a north-south runway, and there is a north-south runway," he said. "So, therefore, that must be our airport."
The Jabara airport reportedly does not have an air traffic control tower, but does have a runway 6,100 feet in length based on information on Airnav.com. This is shorter than the 12,000-foot pathway at McConnell.
"The engineers have been running calculations all night long to make sure it's safe to take off," Valerie Wise, a spokeswoman with the Witchita Airport Authority told Bloomberg. "The dreamlifter has taken up a pretty good chunk of the runway."
The airport's lack of a control tower requires crew members to radio in what moves they are making with their aircraft's. Pilots must also gauge traffic on their own when in unsupervised areas.
Officials hoped to send the plane on its way Thursday.
"We are working to determine next steps and expect to have additional information" later today, Marc Birtel, spokesman for Boeing Commercial Airplanes told Bloomberg.
The news is the latest development since pilots on a Delta Airlines Northwest flight flew across Minneapolis in 2009, because they became sidetracked when using their work laptop computers.
