Unbelievable footage shows a C-17 landing at the wrong airport with just a 3,400-foot strip for a 400,000lb airplane
Published on Dec 09, 2025 at 11:20 PM (UTC+4)
by Daisy Edwards
Last updated on Dec 09, 2025 at 5:37 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
This giant C-17 touched down on a runway that wasn’t designed for anything close to its size, sending everyone on the ground into a panic.
The 400,000lb military transport ended up on a runway strip which was just 3,400 feet long.
The moment was captured on July 20, 2012, as another crew was prepping their airplane for departure.
And as you can tell from the footage, it caused quite the commotion for those watching it unfold in real time.
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Why this C-17 landing is so nerve-wracking
The C-17 Globemaster III airplane is built to handle rough missions, but this video showed the plane pushing its capabilities to the edge.
It normally needs far more runway than it had here, yet the crew found themselves lined up on a strip almost half the length they’d expect to need for a safe landing.
Once the C-17 touched down, the pilot had to hit the brakes and full reverse thrust to keep the massive plane from overrunning the runway.
The airplane zoomed down the runway but managed to stay both the right way up and safely on the tarmac without any massive disasters.
The person who filmed the moment said they ‘weren’t expecting to see this’ and the wobbly, chaotic filming proves that.
The footage shakes as the cameraperson sprints to get a better view of the giant military plane’s landing attempt.
What led to this remarkable landing?
The dramatic landing is believed to have been the result of two possibilities.
The C-17 crew either mistook the smaller airport for its intended, larger airport or experienced a situation on board that required them to make an emergency landing.
Either way, the pilots in the cockpit pulled off a remarkable landing thanks to incredible skill and experience.
This blurry footage is a great show of staying calm during chaos.
You can watch it in the video at the top of the story.
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Daisy Edwards is a Content Writer at supercarblondie.com. Daisy has more than five years’ experience as a qualified journalist, having graduated with a History and Journalism degree from Goldsmiths, University of London and a dissertation in vintage electric vehicles. Daisy specializes in writing about cars, EVs, tech and luxury lifestyle. When she's not writing, she's at a country music concert or working on one of her many unfinished craft projects.
