Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 lands at wrong airport in Branson, Missouri

US OFFICIALS are investigating why a Southwest Airlines flight landed at the wrong airport, where the runway was half as long as tIt's the second time in less than two months that a large jet has landed at the wrong US airport.

Southwest Airlines Flight 4013, carrying 124 passengers and five crew members, was scheduled to go from Chicago's Midway International Airport to Branson Airport in Missouri, airline spokesman Brad Hawkins said in a statement. But it landed Sunday evening at Taney County Airport, 11 kilometres away.

"As soon as we touched down, the pilot applied the brake very hard and very forcibly,'' said passenger Scott Schieffer. "I thought, 'Well, this is a very short runway and this must be how he has to land.' I was wearing a seatbelt, but I was lurched forward because of the heavy pressure of the brake. You could smell burnt rubber, a very distinct smell of burnt rubber as we were stopping.''

Once he got off the plane, someone pointed to the edge of the runway, maybe 30 metres away.

"It was surreal when I realised we could have been in real danger and instead of an inconvenience, it could have been a real tragedy,'' Mr Schieffer said.

The website for the airport says its longest runway is 1140 metres. The website for the target airport at Branson says its runway is 2175 metres long.he one at the target destination.Hawkins did not have information on why the plane went to the wrong airport. He said all the passengers and crew were safe, and no injuries were reported. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said the agency is investigating.

The flight had been scheduled to continue from Branson to Dallas. Mr Hawkins said a plane was flown in specifically to take the passengers and crew there.

In November, a Boeing 747 that was supposed to deliver parts to McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas landed at another airport 14 kilometres away. That plane was flown by a two-person crew and had no passengers.

Last year, a cargo plane bound for MacDill Air Force base in Florida landed without incident at a smaller airport nearby. An investigation blamed confusion identifying airports in the area.

Almost a decade ago, a Northwest Airlines plane bound for Rapid City, South Dakota, with 117 passengers landed instead at nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base. As the plane descended through clouds, one of the pilots reported, the crew saw a runway in front of them and mistakenly thought it was the right one.