U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today met with members of the Delta Air Lines executive team to discuss why a recent Delta Air Lines flight flying from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Rapid City failed to land at its intended destination, Rapid City Regional Airport, and instead landed at Ellsworth Air Force Base.
“Our meeting today was the first step in ensuring that instances like the one we saw at Ellsworth last week do not happen again,” said Thune. “Fortunately, inconvenience to the passengers was the worst that came from the erroneous but nevertheless safe landing. It’s still important, though, that Delta and appropriate government safety officials take necessary precautions so make sure that we avoid such unnecessary human error in the future, and protect the flying public.”
Today Thune wrote to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Christopher Hart and requested that he be kept informed as the agency continues its investigation into this matter.
The Senate Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over the NTSB.
