Ben Mutzabaugh

USA TODAY

A Delta Air Lines flight mistakenly landed at the wrong South Dakota airport Thursday night, prompting an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Delta Flight 2845 left Minneapolis/St. Paul with 130 customers Thursday evening and touched down at the Ellsworth Air Force Base instead of its intended destination at the nearby Rapid City Regional Airport.

The Associated Press notes “Ellsworth is about 10 miles due north of Rapid City Regional Airport. The two airports have runways that are oriented nearly identically to the compass, from northwest to southeast.”

Wrong-airport landings rare, but not unheard of

Delta confirmed the incident in a statement, saying “the flight re-departed for Rapid City Thursday night after coordinating with officials.”

Delta added in its statement that “the crew has been taken off-duty while an investigation commences by the National Transportation Safety Board. Delta will fully cooperate with that investigation and has already begun an internal review of its own. Safety is always Delta’s top priority.”

The carrier said it has contacted Flight 2845 passengers "and offered a gesture of apology for the inconvenience."

In a statement to AP, the Air Force said Ellsworth base officials "followed the proper procedures to address the situation."

While rare, U.S. flights have occasionally landed at the wrong airports before.

In fact, a similar incident involving the same airports also occurred in 2004 when a Northwest Airlines A319 also mistakenly landed at Ellsworth.

More recently, a Southwest Airlines flight bound for Branson, Mo., mistakenly landed at a much smaller municipal field nearby in January 2014.

The Southwest 737 involved in that incident had to brake hard and come to an abrupt stop ahead of a steep drop at the end of that airport's shorter runway.

Southwest suspends pilots after landing at wrong airport

And in November 2013, a massive Boeing “Dreamlifter” cargo plane landed at the wrong airport near Wichita. The specially modified 747 transport jet ended up at the small Colonel James Jabara Airport in an apparent mistake. The flight, which was arriving from New York JFK, was supposed to fly to the McConnell Air Force Base but instead landed about nine miles away at Jabara. (VIDEO: Boeing jumbo jet takes off after 'oops' landing)

Other recent wrong-airport mistakes reported in the United States include:

In August 2012: A Silver Airways Saab 340 turbo prop operating as a United Express flight mistakenly landed in Fairmont, W. Va., instead of its intended destination of Clarksburg, W. Va., according to The Aviation Herald.

In July 2012: A massive military C-17 cargo plane bound for MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa instead landed by mistake at the tiny Peter O. Knight Airport, which sits in the middle of suburban homes.

CAUGHT ON VIDEO: Giant military plane lands at wrong airport (July 2012)

September 2011: A Colgan Air Saab 340 turboprop operating under the Continental Express brand mistakenly landed at Louisiana's Southland Field instead of the scheduled destination of Lake Charles Regional Airport. The Sulphur Daily News labeled the mistake of Flight 3222 as a "freak occurrence." The Associated Press says the mistaken airport is "an airfield that usually sees only cropdusters."

June 2004: A Northwest Airbus A319 intending to land at Rapid City, S.D., instead landed about 10 miles away at the Ellsworth Air Force Base.

January 2004: A Shuttle America Saab A340 heading for the University Park Airport near State College, Pa., instead landed by mistake at the Mid-State Regional Airport – a tiny general aviation airport in nearby Philipsburg, Pa. The flight originated from Pittsburgh under the US Airways Express brand.

AP says it conducted a 2014 search "of government safety data and news reports since the early 1990s and found at least 150 flights in which U.S. commercial passenger and cargo planes have either landed at the wrong airport or started to land and realized their mistake in time."

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