Oak ATC noticed an air carrier on a visual approach to oak runway 29 lined up and descending to the ...

Narrative:

On radar vectors to oakland airport (oak) working with local controller; on right dog leg to airport; we were asked if we had airport in sight. We said yes. Captain flying; first officer was looking at oakland airport; I looked outside and saw what I thought was oakland airport; but was in fact hayward airport; which is just east of the localizer for runway 29. I made a right turn adjustment to line up with runway. PAPI showed me high; I continued to descend. First officer stated I was too low. The PAPI showed me high. We were configured for landing gear and flaps set for landing. The sight picture did not look right. I looked down at my flight instruments and saw that I was right of course and low. About this time; I and the local controller saw that I was lined up for the wrong airport. I leveled off and made a correction to the left and landed on runway 29 at oakland. The reason for this happening was that I visually identified the wrong airport. Why did this happen? First; I identified wrong airport visually. Secondly; I did not brief that hayward airport is just east of runway 29 localizer. Lastly; [I] should have been more alert to flight instruments.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: OAK ATC noticed an Air Carrier on a visual approach to OAK Runway 29 lined up and descending to the HWD Runway 28R PAPI and after a verbal alert the Captain focused on the OAK PAPI.

Narrative: On radar vectors to Oakland Airport (OAK) working with Local Controller; on right dog leg to airport; we were asked if we had airport in sight. We said yes. Captain flying; First Officer was looking at Oakland Airport; I looked outside and saw what I thought was Oakland airport; but was in fact Hayward Airport; Which is just east of the localizer for Runway 29. I made a right turn adjustment to line up with runway. PAPI showed me high; I continued to descend. First Officer stated I was too low. The PAPI showed me high. We were configured for landing gear and flaps set for landing. The sight picture did not look right. I looked down at my flight instruments and saw that I was right of course and low. About this time; I and the Local Controller saw that I was lined up for the wrong airport. I leveled off and made a correction to the left and landed on Runway 29 at Oakland. The reason for this happening was that I visually identified the wrong airport. Why did this happen? First; I identified wrong airport visually. Secondly; I did not brief that Hayward Airport is just east of Runway 29 LOC. Lastly; [I] should have been more alert to flight instruments.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.

Attributes
ACN	1009935
Time
Date	201205
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	OAK.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Widebody Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60 Flight Crew Total 27000 Flight Crew Type 3800
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Oak ATC noticed an air carrier on a visual approach to oak runway 29 lined up and descending to the hwd runway 28R PAPI and after a verbal alert the captain focused on the oak PAPI.