Pilots often head to wrong airports, reports show

The landing miscue last month in Branson is among at least 150 U.S. commercial passenger and cargo planes to either land at the wrong airport or correct their erroneous descent before touchdown.

The stat was developed by Associated Press research of government safety data and news reports dating back to the early 1990s. Last fall, a jumbo cargo plane had another landing mishap in Kansas.

The most troublesome spot is San Jose, Calif., where six times pilots have confused two airports within 10 miles in the Silicon Valley south of San Francisco.

In nearly all the incidents researched by the AP, pilots were cleared by controllers to fly based on what they could see rather than relying on automation. Many incidents occur at night, with pilots reporting they were attracted by the runway lights of the first airport they saw during descent.

Some pilots said they disregarded navigation equipment that showed their planes slightly off course because the information didn't match what they were seeing out their windows — a runway straight ahead.

"You've got these runway lights, and you are looking at them, and they're saying: 'Come to me, come to me. I will let you land,'” former Air Force pilot Michael Barr told the AP. “They're like the sirens of the ocean."

Read more from the Associated Press.