( CNN ) -- Federal authorities announced Friday they have opened an investigation into how a mammoth cargo plane landed Wednesday at the wrong airport in Wichita , Kansas . The National Transportation Safety Board 's probe is in addition to a probe announced Thursday by Atlas Air , operator of the Boeing-owned jet . It left New York 's John F. Kennedy International Airport bound for McConnell Air Force Base , but landed instead on the other side of town at Colonel James Jabara Airport . The latter airport does not typically accommodate such beasts . The Atlas Air 747 Dreamlifter is a modified 747-400 passenger airplane that can haul more cargo by volume than any airplane in the world . When fully loaded , the Dreamlifter needs a runway 9,199 feet long to take off , reports affiliate KWCH . The Jabara runway is 6,101 feet . But , after spending Wednesday night performing calculations that factored in the lighter weight from the fuel burned during the flight from JFK and the favorable weather , engineers approved its attempt to take off from Jabara 's abbreviated runway . On Thursday afternoon , after police cleared nearby roads -- just in case -- the plane took off without incident from Jabara . A few minutes later , it landed without incident at its original planned destination -- McConnell Air Force Base . Photos : Boeing through the ages . CNN 's Ed Payne contributed to this report .
The National Transportation Safety Board is opening its own investigation . The plane landed safely at McConell Air Force Base . Jabara Airport has no control tower and a much shorter runway .