Wrong-Airport! Cessna 650 Mistakenly Aligns With MacDill AFB, Executes Go-Around

The runway ahead was not Tampa

Contemporary reporting described a Cessna 650 traveling from Oklahoma City toward Tampa on 16 November 2025 that lined up for an approach to the wrong airport environment. The crew realized on short final that they were aligned with MacDill Air Force Base rather than Tampa International.

“Somewhere on short final they must have noticed their instruments, noticed the environment, or were prodded by the controller.” — View From The Wing

The crew initiated its own go-around

The report says the pilots announced the go-around after recognizing the mistake. Tampa Approach then issued a northbound heading and altitude so the aircraft could be re-sequenced for the correct airport.

The airport layout was part of the context

Contemporary reporting notes that Tampa Bay has several similarly oriented runways in relatively close proximity. That geographic arrangement has contributed to previous wrong-airport approaches. The source, however, does not establish a specific causal finding for this crew, so fatigue, expectation bias or other explanations are not presented as facts.

The flight recovered normally

After the go-around, the Citation was re-sequenced and subsequently landed at Tampa International Airport. The event therefore ended as a serious navigation error that was corrected before a landing at the military base, not as a collision or runway accident.

Timeline

Accident Facts

Sources

• Contemporary report
• Original incident video