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Plane safely departs

CRAIG, Colo. (AP) A TWA jet that landed on a short, narrow runway at the wrong airport took off safely Thursday.

The Boeing MD-80 left Craig-Moffat Airport at about 3:30 p.m. with a new pilot and carried only TWA officials. It flew 17 miles east to Yampa Valley Airport in Hayden, Colo., its original destination, to refuel and then took off for St. Louis with no passengers.

TWA officials did not know why Flight 641, carrying 122 people from St. Louis, landed in Craig on Wednesday, spokeswoman Chris Kelly said.



Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike O’Connor said the flight crew had not reported any problems before landing. ”(The pilot) may have misidentified the airport he was landing at,” he said.

Snow was falling in Craig when the plane landed. It got stuck in mud as it taxied to the terminal.



Craig’s runway is 100 feet wide and 5,600 feet long. The runway at Yampa Valley Airport, which serves the ski resort of Steamboat Springs, is 50 feet wider and 10,000 feet long.

TWA did not release the name of the pilot who landed in Craig or the pilot who flew the plane out.


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