C-17 Taking off from Peter O. Knight

A USAF Boeing C-17 Globemaster made an "unscheduled stop" at Tampa's Peter O. Knight airport, a small regional airport, instead of it's intended runway at MacDill AFB. The takeoff clearance for this plane is about 3500 ft, and the runway at O. Knight is 3400 ft. We were all holding our breath.

• Category

  Autos & Vehicles

[ind0ctr1n3]

Gotta give it to the Americans in this case, having such a large aircraft stopping and starting on such a small distance is increadible. However, on the downside, there could easily have been small planes taking off or landing aswell. Did the pilot clear landing with the tower? Was there any kind of emergency involved? Did Monica get a mouth-full? Questions, questions..

[Nate S]

I wish people would stop talking shit about the pilots who made this mistake. Air Force pilots make mistakes too. And yes I know, they could have killed someone, but they didn't. The crew was flying back from Afghanistan with important personel onboard and were probably fatigued from such a long flight. I can gurantee the crew had trouble sleeping after the mistake they made. On a different note, I am glad this plane has the capability to land and take off on such a short runway.

[BF3marine]

this was an uncontrolled airport meaning no ATC just relying on gentleman announcing their intentions... also I live on MacDill... the airforce never said why the mistake was made... but the C-17 is a fantastic aircraft and can land and take off in very short distances

[brrrlak]

You know thew pilots were pushing the throttle forward with their feet.

[goliac492]

No problem!! STOL!!

[thebakerman1]

I think it's just people who are proud of their country and are just cheering for these people. The interesting thing about this is when people in other places cheer for their native country people usually compliment them for supporting their culture in such a demonstrative way. Americans do it and they're called "annoying assholes" by some (not you but others here have).

I suppose it's one of those "you had to be there" kinda of experiences, as these people would *never* normally see this!

[thebakerman1]

God some people just love to complain, don't they?

[katrina9669]

just think americans build some pretty cool shit.........

[Galileo Galilei]

Impressive capabilities of this plane, but the military really looked bad. There must be hundreds of thousands of nav gear on that plane and at least 3 (more likely 6) people trained in navigation in there, plus the personnel at ATC and the tower and they still made this mistake? It was obviously a visual approach, no one noticed the small size of the strip or of the whole mini-airport? Maybe they should rethink their procedures and buy $89 GPS's from Walmart, this would not have happened!

[Nfarce]

Nah, all part of the drama. Not an everyday event for anyone, to be sure. I noticed everyone's clothes getting blown at the end though, lol. Gives one an idea of how much air these things push out of the way on takeoff.

[UNSUBFROMSCIENCE]

comm and milit nav-apr.direct to waypoint gps mistakes? nah!

[fsxvideosa320]

What's with all the yelling and clapping? It's pretty damn annoying.