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 ...
Apparently he didn’t ask Victor what his vector was.
“Perhaps the taxiway identified as a runway.”
The taxiway seems pretty straight to me. Apparently, it was just an innocent bystander.
Dam this is bad... at the very least the Air Canada pilots career is done.... how the hell do you line up on the taxiway and not the runway.. they have a line of light point right down the center-line of the runway
Han Solo I can understand- he’s an interstellar smuggler, after all. Smugglers are more accustomed to unexpected creative landings than conventional by-the-book pilots.
Well, I’m not a pilot, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express, so the answer is about 10 seconds.
Coming into Atlanta Hartsfield one sunny, clear afternoon, our hotshot pilot almost landed on top of another commercial aircraft crossing our runway. Fortunately, he was able to pull up while pushing the throttle and we missed the poor bugger crossing the runway. I don't know whose fault it was but I suspect the tower gave wrong directions to somebody.
Since that was my third near death experience in an aircraft, I came to the conclusion that it was a matter of fate and that I was not destined to die in an aviation accident. ;o)
He must have been sick that day in Airbus push button flight school!
I guess you were born to be hanged, as the old saying goes.
I’m no pilot.... but I’m saying (it was clear weather reportedly) that the pilot would have seen and understood the situation well enough BEFORE he touched down, unless he was paying no attention at all.... presumably you do look ahead hundreds to a couple of thousand of yards at the surface you will be landing upon.... but ofc it’s all speculation, the main issue is that an airliner should never be on track to land on a taxiway, especially one with planes on it!
Indeed. How could anyone mistake the taxiway as the runway. It's actually *more* obvious at night.
bfl
Have you ever been in a go-around? I got the pleasure at DCA one day. The pilot went back on the power over the runway, managed to stop the decent by the mid point, and wasn’t able to start climbing again until he got past the 395 bridge. I thought I was going to go swimming that afternoon, and the flight attendant in the aisle seat didn’t look too happy, either.
It’s not hitting the throttles and climbing out at the last minute.
Seems to me as if air traffic control would be just as culpable, I doubt the pilot just unilaterally decided where he was going to land at SFO.
As it was an Airbus, perhaps the pilot can claim the computer went rogue once again and picked out it’s own approach???
Goood guest, but closer to 30.
So, the pilot could see a dangerous situation, change the throttle and wait 20+ seconds before actually experiencing an affect.
It seems that the close-call was incredibly close, this article says they came within 100 ft of planes on the taxiway!!
I didn’t realize from the prior article that it had been anywhere near so close, I thought they were called off with much more of a margin. This was indeed a frighteningly close call.
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