OSHKOSH – AirVenture may have likely avoided a potentially deadly disaster.
A small aircraft was forced to veer off the taxiway to evade a head-on collision with another airplane after a single-engine Cessna took off in the wrong direction from Wittman Regional Airport.
The incident occurred Wednesday, July 23, with two separate social media accounts posting reels on Instagram appearing to detail the near-miss on the taxiway.
One of the posts captures video of a Cessna during takeoff before panning out to show another plane on the grass next to the taxiway and a marshal ducking to take cover.
The second reel is footage from a flight tracker showing the Cessna seemingly taxiing in the opposite direction from other aircraft with audio from the presumed pilot.
Someone can be heard in the reel asking if he was given the ‘wrong runway’ before saying ‘they motioned me off.’
That person can be heard asking the tower if he was given the “wrong runway” in the audio, saying “they motioned me off” before the Cessna is later seen taking off northbound against the grain of traffic.
The audio doesn’t capture anyone responding to the person’s request, but later in the reel two people, assumed to be air traffic controllers, are heard saying a Cessna departed in the wrong direction. Aircraft typically take off southbound from Wittman Regional Airport.
EAA Director of Communications Dick Knapinski said he wasn’t aware of the situation while an official at the Federal Aviation Administration said the FAA was preparing to release a statement.
“If there is something that occurred like that in general, it certainly is something that a pilot would not be obeying the directions of air traffic control, either on the ground or in the air,” said Knapinski, who couldn’t recall an incident like that ever happening at AirVenture.
“With something like that, it would be a violation,” he said, “and the agency would have to look at that and say, ‘Is that a violation of the pilot’s certificate, or are there other mitigating factors?’”
Pilot deviation can result in fines, certificate suspension and revocation.
Specifically referred to as a pilot deviation, taking off the in the wrong direction is considered a serious violation by the FAA and can result in fines, certificate suspension and even the revocation of a pilot’s license.
According to FAA records, the airplane is a 1974 Cessna registered to a certified flight instructor from Bismark, North Dakota, with an FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. The award acknowledges pilots who have 50 years of flying without accidents.
Flight tracking info also shows the Cessna left Wittman Regional around 10 a.m. July 23 and reached its final destination of Bismark, North Dakota, at 8:50 p.m. July 23.
A contractor with PilotEdge, the account that posted the reel of the flight tracker, explained the company would’ve sourced the audio from the control tower because of how closely the business works with Oshkosh air traffic controllers.
PilotEdge offers air traffic control for flight simulators in a professional environment through services like SimVenture, which gives pilots who aren’t accustomed to flying into Oshkosh live air traffic control features before AirVenture.
A previous post appeared to show the same plane having problems getting into Oshkosh.
The IG reel wasn’t the first one showing apparent signs of issues surrounding the Cessna, as just one day earlier, PilotEdge posted a flight tracker with audio of someone appearing to be confused about the approach pattern into Wittman Field.
A person is heard telling the tower that he is north of Ripon, but the flight tracker shows the Cessna flying over Waupun heading in the complete opposite direction.
The person is clearly heard saying, “I don’t think I am ready for this,” before someone — assumed to be a controller at Fisk — responds with, “I think it’s probably a better idea if you just divert somewhere else. I don’t think you’re ready for this.”
Despite being told to reroute to either Appleton or Fond du Lac, the Cessna still headed north to pick up the approach pattern at Green Lake before overshooting it and ending up farther north in Berlin.
The assumed controller told the person to head east before that person said he could see the airport in Oshkosh and added, “Sorry for being a pain.”
Wittman Regional is the world’s busiest airport during AirVenture with more than 10,000 aircraft averaging 1,300 to 1,800 flight operations daily.
Both situations could’ve proved disastrous, considering Wittman Regional Airport becomes the world’s busiest airport during AirVenture, averaging 1,300 to 1,800 flight operations daily while attracting more than 10,000 aircraft for the convention.
Air traffic manager and assistant general manager for the Chicago district Elizabeth Wichmann said it is not rare for pilots to get lost, although the video of this Cessna’s approach was “more extreme” than they’re accustomed to.
“We try different things like landmarks, railroad tracks, lakes, sometimes we’ll have them go a little lower to get them over a water tower so they can tell us what town they’re over,” Wichmann explained.
As of July 25, no plane crashes had been reported in the area for this year’s AirVenture, although a small jet crashed in western Minnesota en route to Wisconsin July 21, killing one of two people on board.
Last year, two people died when a plane crashed in a farm field near Old Knapp Road and Nekimi Avenue, 2 miles south of Wittman Field.
Another five unexpected forced landings or crashes occurred in 2023, including a pair of fatal crashes.
Contact Justin Marville at jmarville@gannett.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @justinmarville.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Plane at AirVenture takes off in wrong direction, forcing another aircraft to veer off taxiway
Reporting by Justin Marville, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
