Plane mistakenly lands at airport still under construction
A plane accidentally landed at the wrong airport – one that was still under construction.
Ethiopian Airlines flight ET3891 was scheduled to fly from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe Airport in Ndola, Zambia, on Sunday 4 April.
However, the Boeing 737 aircraft instead landed at the as-yet-uncompleted Copperbelt International Airport, named after the country’s mineral-rich Copperbelt province, around 15 miles away.
Flight tracking information from FlightRadar24 shows the plane’s route to Copperbelt International Airport.
Video from the incident shared on aviation website One Mile At A Time shows the cargo plane taxiing on the tarmac, surrounded by surprised construction workers.
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The Zambian transport ministry’s permanent secretary Misheck Lungu told AFP that the pilot had landed at the airport “by error”.
“When he was about to land he was communicating with the radar and they told him, 'We can’t see you',” Mr Lungu told AFP.
“So he used his sight as he had no control and landed at an airport still under construction.”
The plane later flew on to its original destination.
In 2019, a British Airways plane scheduled to fly from London City Airport to Dusseldorf, Germany, instead landed in Edinburgh by mistake.
Amused passengers filmed the moment when the cabin crew member said: “Holy schmoly! No-one to Edinburgh? No-one to Edinburgh?”
The plane sat on the tarmac for two and a half hours before taking off again for Germany.
The Independent has contacted Ethiopian Airlines for comment.
