Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 0.8
Situational Awareness; Confusion; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Airport; Airspace Structure; Weather; Procedure; Human Factors
Aircraft X checked on inbound at 13;000 feet descending to 9;000 feet. I told him to expect vectors for the ILS as that was what was being advertised and issued a heading of 130 and descended him to 3000 ft. He stated he did not want to go southeast bound because of weather south of the field. I was only showing small areas of light precipitation building 15 miles south of the field. After his request I told him an approach to the opposite runway circle to land will probably be okay but I will need time to get it approved as I was busy and a few other aircraft were deviating and one was having some radio issues. He then says he'll take a vector to the southeast for the ILS Approach. Once he is about 10 miles southwest of the field he reports the airport in sight. I clear him for the Visual Approach and call the tower to tell them of the change. I switched him to tower. I noticed him turning and figured he was either turning directly towards the field or deviating for weather since he was complaining about it before. He suddenly made a sharp left turn heading due north and descended to 1;000 feet. The low altitude alert goes off and I called the tower to issue it. They informed me he had lined up for the wrong airport. Tower handed him back off to me and I climbed him the 3;000 feet; re-vectored him for the ILS Approach and he landed safely. The pilot seemed rushed or impatient. I should have verified the azimuth and distance to the field even though he called the field in sight himself. The private airport should be displayed on the main map instead of a random roadway emergency map.
A TRACON Controller reported an aircraft descended for a Visual Approach to the wrong airport and received a Low Altitude Alert.