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Pensioner Inadvertently Breaches High Security

DW staff (nda)March 31, 2004

There were no shots fired, no missiles launched, only a number of very red faces as a German pensioner accidently landed his small plane on a U.S. air force base.

https://p.dw.com/p/4r5M
Not to be mistaken for the local airport.Image: AP

At a time of increased security around U.S. installations, a 68-year-old pensioner from Aachen had a lucky escape when he wrongly identified the heavily guarded U.S. military airport at Spangdahlem as a local airport and landed his single-engine aircraft there.

On his approach to what he thought was the local airstrip at Bitburg, the pensioner radioed the tower as normal and got permission to land. He then switched off his navigation system, believing that he knew the way unguided. He then mistook the U.S. airstrip as the one he had been cleared to land on and promptly diverted to the high security base eight miles away.

The pensioner was not charged and the incident ended safely. Police in Bitburg said that the pensioner didn't even realize his mistake when he cruised past a number of stationary U.S. aircraft beside the runway.