ST. LOUIS — A federal agency overseeing transportation safety is warning pilots to take extra precautions after a pair of recent plane landings at the wrong airports.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued the safety alert Wednesday, about three months after a Southwest Airlines plane with 124 passengers mistakenly landed at a small airport in Hollister, Mo., rather than one several miles away in Branson.
An Atlas Air cargo plane headed for a military base near Wichita, Kan., in November 2013 instead landed 12 miles away at an airstrip with a runway half the size.
The safety alert notes that the risks of wrong landings increase at night and when other airports are nearby.
Government safety data show that at least 150 flights made such mistakes over the past two decades.