United Douglas DC-8-21 - "Accidental Landing Troutdale" - 1962

[Brian W]

Wondering if any of the old timers here remember this happening.  I was told about it a few years ago by a friend.  One of the stories he told me about it was that the test pilot who got it out of there was Boeing's "cowboy" - Tex Johnson.  Tex is the one who did a barrel roll in the prototype 707.

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRMd62MmePI

 

Here's the video of the 707...  Enjoy..

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaA7kPfC5Hk

[JohnE77]

Thanks for sharing. I live just a few miles from Troutdale (KTTD) - I live across the Columbia River in WA State. Never heard of this story before. Very interesting! I imagine the pilot who landed at the wrong airport never flew for United again??

[BradB]

I was eight years old , so no memory of this incident . Thanks Brian for posting these video's .

Brad

[Brian W]

Thanks for sharing. I live just a few miles from Troutdale (KTTD) - I live across the Columbia River in WA State. Never heard of this story before. Very interesting! I imagine the pilot who landed at the wrong airport never flew for United again??

 

 

I'm sure he didn't...  This was well before my time, but there are other incident's like this out there...  

[JohnE77]

I use both KTTD and KPDX in flight sim quite a lot. Hard to figure how a pilot could have mistaken Troutdale for Portland Intl. They're on the same side of the Columbia River, but beyond that they don't have much in common…and of course KPDX is a much larger airport. Weird.

[nightsails]

Here is a nice write up about this airport, this incident is covered at the end of the article.

Imagine being one of the passengers and having to wait until they could get you out of the plane!

 

http://cni.pmgnews.com/component/content/article?id=57722

 

 

"Still, the event that the airport is most remembered for is the accidental landing on Aug. 12, 1962, of a United Airlines DC-8, coming from Chicago.

The pilot, Capt. S.R. Whipple, mistook the lights of the Troutdale airport for Portland and by the time he realized his mistake, was committed and had to land on Troutdale's 4,630-foot runaway, a feat that experts had believed couldn't be done.

Whipple stopped his craft three-quarters of the way down the runway and told his 81 passengers, 'We have inadvertently landed at the Troutdale airport.'

In a 1978 Outlook interview, Les Meyer, the airport manager, said he threw on clothes and rode out on the airport fire truck to meet the giant plane. The worst problem, Meyer said later, was waiting for a ramp to come from Portland to get passengers off the plane.

The next day, two test pilots came to fly the plane out. Drained of most of its fuel, it lifted off the runway halfway down and took off on its tail.

Whipple did return to flying, retiring two years later.

Ironically, he had been the third pilot to land a DC-3 there in 1948 during the flood conditions. And he was the first to land a DC-8 there."

[Olde Tom]

I remember this landing but thought it as a Boeing plane. The account I heard said that, prior to takeout, they took down a fence at the end of the runway and even removed come of the seats.

 

I was 22 years old, living in Seattle and working at Boeing. Does this make me an “old-timer”??  : > )

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

the links above don't work for me, if you have the same problem,

please try this one.

 

[wolfko]

11 hours ago, Olde Tom said:

I was 22 years old, living in Seattle and working at Boeing. Does this make me an “old-timer”??  : > )

 

As also you nickname implies, I am afraid it does.

[wolfko]

On 1/7/2014 at 4:05 AM, JohnE77 said:

 I imagine the pilot who landed at the wrong airport never flew for United again??

 

Why not? Not easy to bring a DC 8 down on such a short runway.

[Rodger Pettichord]

I lived just across the river and remember the incident well. The erring pilot became something of a hero to local pilots. If could land that plane at Troutdale, he must be a hell of a stick. United Airlines didn't entirely agree.

[wolfko]

4 hours ago, Rodger Pettichord said:

United Airlines didn't entirely agree.

 

But AFAIK he he worked for UA for two more years.

[Wakashi]

I'd bet our old "Pal Jack" could do that easy enough, both the landing and the takeoff! 

[Rodger Pettichord]

1 hour ago, Wakashi said:

I'd bet our old "Pal Jack" could do that easy enough, both the landing and the takeoff! 

They'd have to paint the plane yellow first.

[N26841]

Admittedly grainy, but here is an 8mm movie of the takeoff...https://youtu.be/n8-yu2G2zUA