AirAsia X Flight 506 from Kuala Lumpur to Seoul was supposed to touch down at Incheon airport at 7:50 p.m. local time on Wednesday – but it landed at Seoul’s Gimpo airport instead, about 20 miles off course.
On arrival, the captain announced to everyone on board that they’d landed at Incheon, even though that’s not where they were. Passengers got up, popped open their overhead bins, and some looked out the window and realized something was not right. Flight attendants were unaware. One crewmember reportedly even said she had to call her parents, who were waiting at Incheon, to warn them that she… wasn’t home yet
It took hours, but they finally took off again for the correct airport. Customers complained that they were given little explanation, and no water on the ground.
Officially, the airline claims the flight was diverted due to turbulence and the pilot just made a mistake in his announcement (and didn’t tell crew or passengers about the diversion in advance). The airline also gave the excuse of an air traffic control diversion due to congestion. Passengers finally arrived at their final destination around midnight.
According to Air Asia X,
AirAsia X (AAX) confirms that flight D7506 from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Incheon International Airport (ICN) on 13 August landed safely at 10.54pm. The flight had diverted to Gimpo International Airport (GMP) earlier in the evening for refuelling following air traffic congestion at ICN due to adverse weather conditions.
Safety is our highest priority, and the captain acted in full accordance with standard operating procedures, including keeping guests informed of the diversion initially in English. A miscommunication occurred in the cabin crew announcement upon landing, which the captain promptly clarified, confirming the diversion to Gimpo Airport due to adverse weather and refuelling. The captain also apologised to guests for the inconvenience, reassuring them that the landing at Gimpo was to to refuel and that the aircraft will proceed to its original destination.
In 2019, British Airways made worldwide news when a flight scheduled from London City airport to Dusseldorf, Germany landed instead in Edinburgh when the wrong flight plan was used. The plane flew to Edinburgh and back to London City the night before and that’s what was repeated — passengers discovering the error when they landed in the wrong country.
Mere weeks later, Scandinavian operated flight SK2961 Copenhagen – Florence, Italy instead of flying to Bologna. At least that time they got the country right! Pilots lacked the correct routing information and so they just decided to fly to a different airport and bus passengers from there, rather than delaying the flight – and not tell anybody.
Singapore Airlines almost flew to the wrong airport in Mumbai though the carrier denies it. And two years ago, a Nigerian airline accidently flew to Asaba instead of Abuja, but you can understand the confusion, right?
Nigeria my country. We departed Lagos about an hour ago on @flyunitedng to Abuja, and upon arrival, the cabin crew confidently announced that we've arrived Abuja, only for us to realize that we landed in Asaba. Apparently, our pilot was given wrong flight plan from Lagos ♂️ pic.twitter.com/Qv4zepDiVF
— Peacock (@dawisu) November 26, 2023
Meanwhile, last fall an American Airlines flight from Norfolk landed on the wrong runway at Chicago O’Hare. Oops.
It’d be like landing at Newark or La Guardia when you were expecting JFK. It happens. Severe weather, etc. Ironically, for those going to Seoul, like city-center, Gimpo is technically closer.
Pilot to Air Traffic Control: “Missed it by that much!”
https://imgur.com/gallery/missed-by-that-much-rLixjnK
any airport south of the 38th parallel is fair game. If they manage to successfully cross that line and nobody notices, the world has clearly changed.
@Tim Dunn — Yup, it could be far worse… also, do watch out for the birds (and the concrete embankment) at MWX. *deep sigh*
It’s one thing to land at the wrong airport, it’s another for ATC to give a flight clearance to land at the wrong airport. Presumably ATC would have known they were not supposed to land at Gimpo. Given how little Asian pilots tend to communicate to passengers, and no resistance from ATC to land at wrong airport, it’s more likely that indeed they were diverting and just didn’t bother to announce it.
@ Mantis. That was my first thought. If pilotS and ATC didn’t catch the mistake, then there is a big problem.
@Mantis — ATC didn’t error here; the diversion was planned. It was just a bad announcement on-board; the airlines apologized afterwards. Yes, communication should’ve been better, but the crew apparently was under pressure here. I wouldn’t vilify Asian pilots like you just did; in similar circumstances, American pilots make mistakes, too. We can all be glad that no one was really all that harmed here.
FlightAware says that the arrival time was at 7:50pm local time for the landing at Gimpo, about 20 minutes after sunset. Anyone who was looking out the window should have been able to see that they were landing over land instead of over water which is what happens at Incheon. I give the flight attendants a pass since their seats may not have a window view.
@1990, and shutting down (a) working engine(s) that would have allowed plane to land without mishap.
Its amazing how landing at a close-but-no-cigar airport can cost you hours. I was on an AA A300 (yeah, long ago) that was almost on the runway at MIA when the T-storm we were in erupted in wind shear and a lightning strike to the tower (quite a thing to see). We rocketed off to the Atlantic like SpaceX and ultimately were cleared to land at FLL. We’d been coming from GYE so an int’l flight. And once we landed, we had to wait. First an hour for the same storm that caused this at MIA to pass FLL. Then for the crew to come out. Then to get refueled. Then to get cleared, flight plan filed, other paperwork.
Following a 20 minute flight, we arrived at MIA – 4:45 late. So yes, it’s a real time killer if it happens.
@Flytime — We talkin’ Jeju 2216? Yeah, it’d be easy to just blame pilot error for any and all accidents, but that may not be the case here; the birds seem to be the primary cause (think US1549), and the design of that embankment likely caused more harm than would have happened otherwise. Tragic, either way. Should’ve landed in the Hudson…
Wow. People make excuses for incompetence.
The pilots should be fired.
The ATC controllers should be fired.
Everyone above who said this is par for the course should be fired.
IF YOU CAN’T DO YOUR JOB GOODBYE.
@Ehud Gavron — If you believe the airline’s statemen, this was just miscommunication (or lack of proper explanation for the diversion/delay); so we may be making a mountain out of a mole hill with this one. Then again, the clickbait is great for ‘engagement’ on this site. Keep it going!
@flytime is correct, so much pilot error on the Jeju crash. They shut down the good engine. Didn’t lower the landing gear, could have done it manually, didn’t lower flaps, could have done it electrically. Floated way down the runway. Obviously they didn’t follow any training, checklists, or emergency procedures.
The initial report is out, it’s not opinion. It’s their bad luck that the embankment was in the way.
in the 90″s Tower Air was chartered to fly from Rome NY to X city in europe and crew scheduling send the exchange crew to Rome Italy and we ended up putting 400 pax in hotels and the chattered flight was dalayed 2 days.
@ 1990. Often male flight attendant PAs are mistakenly attributed to being the pilot (not to vilify FAs) as was most likely the case in this diversion. Also I am quite certain you have never trained English Second Language student pilots/line pilots. It’s a tad bit more of a challenging experience.
Stop covering up incompetence.
If the pilots, ATC, or anyone in charge can’t meet basic standards, they don’t deserve the role.
No excuses—just accountability.