WICHITA, KS — Wednesday night one of Boeing’s modified 747 Dreamlifters ended up landing about eight miles from where it was supposed to, at a completely different airport.
The Dreamlifter is used to transport parts for Boeing’s Dreamliner planes to final assembly points in Everett, WA and North Charleston, SC.
This Dreamlifter, there are several, was supposed to land at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, KS. They did end up in Wichita, but at Jabara airport, which is well north of McConnell.
We do not know yet know why the plane landed at Jabara instead of McConnell. Communications between the aircraft and the tower seem to suggest that the pilots made a mistake. We have not been told of any plane malfunction or weather issues.
The plane was stuck at the smaller airport overnight because it was thought that the runways at Jabara were too short for the Dreamlifter, a modified 747, to take off again.
Thursday morning KIRO 7 was told that new calculations showed the plane, and it’s cargo, could take off from Jabara Airport.
The plane was scheduled to take off at 10 a.m. Pacific. After a long delay, it finally left the airport about 11:20 a.m. without incident.
KIRO
