Posted on 07/11/2017 9:51:32 AM PDT by Lonely Bull
SAN FRANCISCO — In what one aviation expert called a near-miss of what could have been the largest aviation disaster ever, an Air Canada pilot on Friday narrowly avoided a tragic mistake: landing on the San Francisco International Airport taxiway instead of the runway.
Sitting on Taxiway C shortly before midnight were four airplanes full of passengers and fuel awaiting permission to take off, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the “rare” incident. An air traffic controller sent the descending Air Canada Airbus 320 on a “go-around” — an unusual event where pilots must pull up and circle around to try again — before the safe landing, according to the federal agency.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
“Wi Tu Lo,”
“Ho Lee Fuk,”
“Bang Ding Ow.”
Perhaps the taxiway “identified” as a runway. Have you not taken the taxiway’s feelings into account?
I have over 14000 hrs flying various aircraft... How the H3ll do land on a taxiway at night... Taxiways have BLUE lights, and runways have WHITE lights,, real amateur......
I’ve often wondered why this doesn’t happen more often.
From the Harrison Ford Flight School.
Ask Han Solo how this works... Almost crashed into a passenger plane on the taxi-way a couple months back, all he got was a warning. I guess it pays to be a very rich Hollywood idiot.
See post #4. It is on of the things that you learn in ground school.
Taxiways don’t have those big bright approach lights, either.
There was an accident a few years ago here in the USA the control tower had the pilot takeoff from a taxi lane.
A few months ago, two Canadian Air Force fighter jets were diverted from Tyndall AFB because of some emergency. They were told to land at the Northwest Florida Beaches commercial airport.
They instead started to land at the deserted and overgrown old Panama City airport. They got to around 6 feet elevation before air traffic control corrected them.
ummm... I did. Once. Out west, unfamiliar with the airport, after hours, tower closed, not able to get runway lights on.
Worked fine, although I'm single-engine-land, and this story is about a large airliner.
Will be interesting to hear more about this.
Seems it would be impossible to line up wrong, hearing your explanation of the lighting.
What was going on with this guy?
Thank you for comment. There is in fact, a Freeper knowledgeable and experienced in every subject. I fly as a passenger 10 times a year and I never bothered to look up blue versus white light designations.
What I did learn not long ago by talking to a pilot was the way in which a computer balances the aircraft load and makes all the necessary adjustments based on weight and distribution. My father in law was a B17 pilot and captain of the ship before he was 21. This was in 1945 and they were running short of pilots to make the bomb runs over Germany.
Lived in San Francisco for years, flew in and out of SFO, one time coming back from Paris they said we were being diverted to San Jose due to fog, lots of groans, but as we came in I said, good, we are going to SFO, the pilot said San Jose, prepare to land, welcome to San Jose, ....er um it appears we have landed in SFO.
In addition to him missing the ALS, the TDZ lighting, the centerline lighting, the VASI, the fact that his localizer was deflected, etc etc etc
Don’t they use vectors and glide scopes to guide them down?
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