About Southwest Pilots Who Landed at the Wrong Missouri Airport

Do you think the public is being a little hard on those poor Southwest pilots who landed at the wrong airport in Missouri? OK, granted, the captain almost ran off the runway, but the fact is he didn’t. Why are people talking about all the things he didn’t do? Maybe he forgot to comb his hair that day but if he looks like George Clooney, who cares?

Sure, there was a little bit of rubber burning and hand clenching upon landing, no doubt, but at least the brakes were applied with force. We all make mistakes. And let’s face it, Missouri is the kind of place where it might be easy to get lost, what with people whose motto is show me. Don’t they know where they are going? It’s just a big ol’ square with a tail in the middle of the United States.

Haven’t you even gotten into your car to, say, drive to a friend’s house and wondered why you were instead headed off to work? Be honest. We all do it. OK, maybe I am only the driver in Sacramento who speeds up to shoot way over across all of those lanes on the W/X freeway from Riverside and, before she realizes it, discovers she is heading out I-80 instead of Highway 50, or vice versa.

When you list homes all over Sacramento like this real estate agent, it can happen. Which is why I have a new system that prevents it. I repeat to myself which freeway I need to travel before I embark on the journey. Interstate 80 or Highway 50? I know the answer when I leave my office.

Sometimes, though, our cars just take the path of least resistance, the path most often traveled, and there’s not a lot we can do about it, especially if we’re yakking away on our Bluetooth device about Sacramento real estate. I might initially intend, for example, to go to PetCo, which is east of me, and find myself driving north to my office. It happens when our minds are preoccupied, and it’s not necessarily an age-related thing.

Maybe those Southwest pilots were playing Angry Birds when they landed at the wrong airport. It can happen, just saying. Of course, I am not a passenger on Southwest who expected to arrive at a different destination. It would be like expecting to land in Sacramento but finding myself in San Diego. But both cities start with an S. I suppose that I can see the similarities if I squint really hard and sing at the top of my voice Leaving on a Jet Plane.