Originally Posted by
Xyzzy
FWIW, I was once on a CO 737 landing at EWR. We were headed for rwy 4R when at an altitude of a few hundred feet seconds from landing when we swung left and then right in one quick motion and landed on rwy 4L. It was pretty smoothly done and done too quickly to cause any sort of panic. Nobody else seemed to notice! After pulling to the gate I asked the pilot what had happened. He said he was going to the control tower to find out. He was not happy.
Sometimes the tower screws up and forgets the left/right assignment they give you. Or they change their minds. I was flying into SBA with clearance to 15R. Since I was flying a slow Cessna 172, tower probably forgot that they had cleared me to 15R and then cleared me to 15L while I was on short final aligned to 15R. When I confirmed I was switching to 15L, the tower controller then remembered the runway assignment he had given me originally and kept me headed to 15R. It happens.