Ethiopian plane mistakenly lands at airport under construction

Ethiopian Airlines 737 lands at wrong airport.

 

An Ethiopian Airlines plane accidentally landed at an airport in Zambia by mistake – one that was still under construction.

 

Flight ET3891 was scheduled to operate from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Ndola, Zambia on Sunday 4 April.

 

However, to the dismay of construction workers on the tarmac the plane landed at the unfinished Copperbelt International Airport, around 15 miles away.

 

In a video posted online, workers can be seen surrounding the Boeing 737 appearing surprised by its arrival.

 

Realising their mistake, the pilots taxied back onto the runway and took off again for the short hop to the correct airport.

 

According to reports, only minutes after the gaffe, another Ethiopian plane almost made the same mistake, performing a last second go around at the airport before flying to the correct airport.

 

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.”