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The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is
investigating how an Air Canada pilot lined up to land last week on a
taxiway at San Francisco International Airport where four planes were
waiting to depart, the agency said on Tuesday.
The
Air Canada A320 from Toronto was cleared to land on a runway at the
airport just before midnight on Friday, the FAA said in a statement.
But instead, the pilot of flight AC759 inadvertently
lined up to land on a parallel taxiway where four planes were waiting to
depart.
The Air Canada plane was estimated to have
flown over the planes on the taxiway by as little as 100 feet (30
meters), according to a preliminary summary published on Tuesday by the
Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
Along with the FAA, the US National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.
Near miss
According
to an audio recording of the incident, a United Airlines pilot is heard
saying that the Air Canada plane "flew directly over us," alerting the
air traffic controller that the plane was headed toward the taxiway.
The controller took charge, averting what could have
been the worst aviation disaster since the collision of two B747 planes
in 1977 in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, US pilot and Aero Consulting
Experts Chief Executive Ross Aimer said by phone.
"An
air traffic controller sent the Air Canada jet around," the FAA said.
"The plane made another approach and landed without incident."
The FAA is now investigating the distance between the Air Canada aircraft and the jets that were lined up on the taxiway.
In
separate statements, both Air Canada and its pilots' union said they
could not comment further since the incident is under investigation.
