Narrative:

Approaching the dallas area about 20 miles from the destination; we were cleared from 8000 ft to 3000 ft MSL. Upon reaching 3000 ft; we had traffic at 10 o'clock; 3 o'clock and 12 o'clock low. The copilot keyed the mic 7 times on the arlington traffic advisory frequency to bring up the airport lights and identified the destination airport. At that point we canceled IFR. We completed the before landing checklist while keeping an eye on the numerous other aircraft while we flew. We made the required VFR calls on traffic advisory frequency for arlington. We entered the pattern flying a downwind to the landing runway but there was a cessna aircraft that called that he was turning base for that runway ahead of us so we elected to stay at pattern altitude and make an upwind leg. Continuing around the pattern ; there were numerous aircraft in the area. The copilot keyed the lights again at the same time a cessna landing at grand prairie brought up the lights at that airport and when the lights came to 'bright' as if by our command; we misidentified it as our destination airport and landed. The landing was uneventful. Clearing the runway; I immediately suspected we were at the wrong airport because the control tower was on the wrong side of the field from where I remembered it. We taxied to the FBO and called the company with our report.areas like dallas have a multitude of airports and despite normally being able to identify them with the controllable runway lights; it is not a positive enough way to confirm the identity of the airport. I normally confirm the identity with the GPS as a backup but got too busy watching traffic. In the future I would stay with ATC until I had intercepted the ILS if it was available; regardless of the runway of intended landing.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Dassault Falcon 20 Captain reported nighttime lighting confusion resulted in his landing at the neighboring GPM airport instead of the intended destination; GKY.

Narrative: Approaching the Dallas area about 20 miles from the destination; we were cleared from 8000 ft to 3000 ft MSL. Upon reaching 3000 ft; we had traffic at 10 o'clock; 3 o'clock and 12 o'clock low. The copilot keyed the mic 7 times on the Arlington traffic advisory frequency to bring up the airport lights and identified the destination airport. At that point we canceled IFR. We completed the before landing checklist while keeping an eye on the numerous other aircraft while we flew. We made the required VFR calls on traffic advisory frequency for Arlington. We entered the pattern flying a downwind to the landing runway but there was a Cessna aircraft that called that he was turning base for that runway ahead of us so we elected to stay at pattern altitude and make an upwind leg. Continuing around the pattern ; there were numerous aircraft in the area. The copilot keyed the lights again at the same time a Cessna landing at Grand Prairie brought up the lights at that airport and when the lights came to 'bright' as if by our command; we misidentified it as our destination airport and landed. The landing was uneventful. Clearing the runway; I immediately suspected we were at the wrong airport because the control tower was on the wrong side of the field from where I remembered it. We taxied to the FBO and called the company with our report.Areas like Dallas have a multitude of airports and despite normally being able to identify them with the controllable runway lights; it is not a positive enough way to confirm the identity of the airport. I normally confirm the identity with the GPS as a backup but got too busy watching traffic. In the future I would stay with ATC until I had intercepted the ILS if it was available; regardless of the runway of intended landing.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.