The story says we don't know "why" he landed at the incorrect airport. That's the thing. There must be something missing from this story. It just doesn't make sense for a modern jetliner with fully qualified and professional pilots to simply "get lost" and land at a wrong airport by "mistake".
Unless there is an issue with the plane (i.e. malfunctioning flight instruments) or some other emergency situation, commercial pilots do not "take the wrong turn", so-to-speak. All parts of a commercial flight is careful planned and vetted by the flight dispatcher and approved by the relevant authorities before the flight takes off. Combined with modern navigational aids (i.e. VORs, GPS), transponder, CPDLC (Controller–pilot data link communications) and radio communication, getting "lost" is not something that is supposed to happen in this day and age.
Last edited by WindowSeat123; Nov 21, 2013 at 4:31 am