Air Canada Misses Crashing Into Four Planes in Landing Mix-Up
United States aviation officials continue to look into a near disaster involving an Air Canada pilot lining up to land on a taxiway at San Francisco International Airport. The tarmac had four planes waiting to depart, and last-minute corrections averted what could have been the "greatest aviation disaster in history," as reported by media.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how Air Canada Flight AC759 from Toronto lined up to land on a parallel taxiway, where four planes were parked, instead of the runway.
Air Canada Flight AC759 was cleared to land on Friday, July 7, at just about midnight, the FAA shared in a statement according to Reuters. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is also looking into the incident.
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Averting the landing at the last minute, the pilot of the A320 craft missed the parked planes by as close as 100 feet, or 30 meters, according to a report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
The pilot has lined up to land after seeing "lights on the runway," but called up the air traffic control tower to confirm. "Air Canada 759 confirmed cleared to land runway 28 right," the pilot called, to which tower responded: "There is no one on 28-Right but you."
Another call from who could be one of the pilots on standby on the taxiway interrupts: "Where's this guy going? He's on the taxiway," as quoted by CTV News Canada.
The control tower staff, who could have realized that the plane was lined up to land on the taxiway instead of on the assigned runway, radioed to plane to "go around" and make another landing run.
Pulling up, the plane flew over the parked aircraft on the taxiway. The jet "flew directly over us," one United Airlines pilot parked on the tarmac said. Flight AC759 landed safely around 15 minutes later.
