Medium Transport
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 7
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors; Airport
Aircraft X on arrival route inbound to PVD. Initial altitude 11000. Check on descended to 5000. Turned aircraft direct to BEVIN intersection for the visual approach to Runway 34 at PVD. Aircraft X called PVD in sight. I cleared Aircraft X for the visual approach to Runway 34 and instructed to turn final over BEVIN for noise abatement. 10 miles south of PVD I instructed Aircraft X to contact Tower. Numerous other aircraft were on frequency and practice approaches being done. I then started a relief briefing to release the Groton and Jumpr airspace. At this time the Local Controller called and reported they sent Aircraft X around because they noticed he on short final for OQU airport. They called OQU Tower as I was also keying up the line and were already getting the point out. I asked the OQU Tower Controller if they had them to ship them to [Departure]. I then called Local and asked them to give the aircraft back to me for re-sequence. I re-identified Aircraft X and put them on a 230; and then a 160 heading. I then continued my relief briefing for the south two sectors.I have no recommendations due to this just being a mistake. No procedure changes would impact what happened.
We were cleared for the visual approach into PVD Runway 34. We were told to go direct to Bevin; the FAF (Final Approach Fix); and maintain inside Bevin for noise abatement. We had the ILS 34 approach loaded and cleaned up. We knew that based on the instructions to remain inside the FAF that we needed to configure the aircraft for landing early. The Captain; who was flying; announced that he had a 'no approach' indication on his side and instead of relying on a possible error in the FMS (Flight Management System); he clicked off the auto pilot and hand flew the approach. We had an airport insight and the Runway 34 in sight and he began the descent on the visual approach. I became weary that we were not on the appropriate approach and went back to the approach that was loaded and saw that the course was to our right. I told the Captain that something was wrong and called for a go around at the same time PVD Tower announced that we may be on the approach to the airport next to them. The go around was executed follow by vectors to the left for the visual into PVD. We landed at PVD.ATC was task saturated with another aircraft and I called them twice; once asking for lower altitude and once to see if they wanted us to contact Tower a few minutes after we were cleared for the approach. After we were given the clearance or the approach; we configured the aircraft early because of the instructions to remain inside the FAF. The Captain had his range out farther than normal which led him to believe that we were close to the FAF and due to a possible FMS error he turned for the airport that was insight. The airport which is 7 miles to the south has the exact same runway setup as PVD and we saw the runway marked clearly '34'. We were unaware of any possible airports in the vicinity that were similar. I was trying to configure the aircraft at the Captains request along with making the radio calls and trying to see why the approach didn't make sense to me. I missed the 1000 foot call because I was trying to see what the issue was. I had my range set at 2.5 miles and after 1000 ft I turned my range out and saw the course to our right. I told the Captain that we were not on the right approach and when ATC called us I announced the go around.
Flight crew and controllers reported that an aircraft lined up for a runway in close proximity to the airport they were intending on landing.