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A Cessna Citation VI (N500FR) almost landed at the MacDill Air Force Base while attempting to land at the Tampa International Airport (TPA).
The aircraft was finishing a flight from the Wiley Post Airport (PWA) and called the ATC tower to report they were on the final approach at an altitude of 1,600 feet at roughly 12-13 nautical miles away from the airport, according to Gate Check.com. It is unknown what type of approach the Citation was cleared for, as it was flying below the charted altitude of 2,600 ft at that distance.
The pilots were told they were third in line on the approach behind a Gulfstream V and a Breeze Airways Airbus A220-300, because there was another aircraft departing from the runway. Once the departing aircraft had cleared the runway, all three aircraft were cleared to land. The Citation was approaching at 500 ft when it received its clearance.
MacDill AFB is eight miles from TPA. The Citation accidentally left the runway approach path into Tampa and made a right turn to line up to land at MacDill's runway. At around 300 ft, the pilots realized their mistake and notified ATC that they were going around.
"We're going around. I think we're at the wrong airport, 500FR."
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The tower provided the pilots with a vector after the go-around and the aircraft was resequenced for approach. The aircraft was able to land safely at the correct airport. This is not the first time a civilian aircraft landed at MacDill when attempting to land at TPA. In 1984, an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 landed at the base after making the same mistake.