Narrative:

Inbound to rsw; the ATIS was giving runway 24 as the primary. We briefed a visual approach to runway 24; but the first officer queried approach control about our routing through the thunderstorms on our path to runway 24. Approach control then said the wind had changed and was a direct crosswind. They suggested a visual approach to runway 6. All passengers and flight attendants had been seated since 14;000 ft. We turned to the assigned heading of 220; then 240; and then 270 to go between thunderstorms and get on the west side of rsw for the visual to runway 6. On these various headings; we were constantly changing our scale settings on the weather radar to give us the best picture of getting through the weather. At one time; just before breaking out in visual conditions; I saw the representation of rsw off my left side while on about the twenty mile scale. After breaking out of the weather at about 3000 ft; the approach controller called out the airport at about our 7-8 o'clock position and (I think) five-seven miles. I looked over my left shoulder and told the first officer I had the airport; and he notified approach control who sent us over to the tower. At this time; the first officer could not see the airport that I had seen (it turned out to be the page airport). I should have realized that the airport representation I saw on the radar was closer than I had seen before. This was only the second time I had flown into rsw. We overshot the final to the page airport and (as I was correcting back to line up on final); the first officer told me that the airport we were lining up for was not rsw. It was at this time that I noticed that the localizer was not lined up; and it further indicated to me we were not on final to runway 6 at rsw. I looked to my right; saw the rsw airport; and turned to about a 180-degree heading. I calculated we were no closer than about five to six miles from the page airport when we corrected. From a heading of 180; we reconfigured to flaps 15 and proceeded to enter a left base for runway 6 at rsw. Even though we were on the tower frequency for rsw; we were never asked about our alignment with the page airport. One of the reasons was (I think); they were trying to get as many departures out as they could before the storms came over the airport; and there were low level windshear [alerts] on the airport for runway 6. Some aircraft were reporting gains and losses of 20 KTS. We got a 20-knot gain at about 200 ft AGL; but our landing was normal and the taxi to the gate was uneventful. The flight ended normally and we were never asked by ATC about our initial heading to page airport. Our scheduled departure was delayed about sixty minutes for severe weather all across central florida.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier Flight Crew; deviating around significant weather; lined up for Page airport instead of the intended RSW. The error was identified by the First Officer and a normal landing at RSW followed.

Narrative: Inbound to RSW; the ATIS was giving Runway 24 as the primary. We briefed a visual approach to Runway 24; but the First Officer queried Approach Control about our routing through the thunderstorms on our path to Runway 24. Approach Control then said the wind had changed and was a direct crosswind. They suggested a visual approach to Runway 6. All passengers and Flight Attendants had been seated since 14;000 FT. We turned to the assigned heading of 220; then 240; and then 270 to go between thunderstorms and get on the west side of RSW for the visual to Runway 6. On these various headings; we were constantly changing our scale settings on the weather radar to give us the best picture of getting through the weather. At one time; just before breaking out in visual conditions; I saw the representation of RSW off my left side while on about the twenty mile scale. After breaking out of the weather at about 3000 FT; the Approach Controller called out the airport at about our 7-8 o'clock position and (I think) five-seven miles. I looked over my left shoulder and told the First Officer I had the airport; and he notified Approach Control who sent us over to the Tower. At this time; the First Officer could not see the airport that I had seen (it turned out to be the Page airport). I should have realized that the airport representation I saw on the radar was closer than I had seen before. This was only the second time I had flown into RSW. We overshot the final to the Page airport and (as I was correcting back to line up on final); the First Officer told me that the airport we were lining up for was not RSW. It was at this time that I noticed that the localizer was not lined up; and it further indicated to me we were not on final to Runway 6 at RSW. I looked to my right; saw the RSW airport; and turned to about a 180-degree heading. I calculated we were no closer than about five to six miles from the Page airport when we corrected. From a heading of 180; we reconfigured to flaps 15 and proceeded to enter a left base for Runway 6 at RSW. Even though we were on the Tower frequency for RSW; we were never asked about our alignment with the Page airport. One of the reasons was (I think); they were trying to get as many departures out as they could before the storms came over the airport; and there were low level windshear [alerts] on the airport for Runway 6. Some aircraft were reporting gains and losses of 20 KTS. We got a 20-knot gain at about 200 FT AGL; but our landing was normal and the taxi to the gate was uneventful. The flight ended normally and we were never asked by ATC about our initial heading to Page airport. Our scheduled departure was delayed about sixty minutes for severe weather all across central Florida.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.