An Air Canada Airbus A320 plane narrowly averted disaster after it almost landed on a taxiway with four other planes on it in San Francisco Friday night.
Air Canada flight AC759 from Toronto was cleared to land on runway 28R just before midnight. However, the pilot inadvertently lined up for Taxiway C, which runs parallel to the runway. An air traffic controller sent the Air Canada jet around. The plane made another approach and landed without incident.
In an audio recording of the conversations between air traffic control and pilots available from Live ATC, the Air Canada pilot tells air traffic control he sees other lights on the runway before being told there are no other planes on 28R.
In the recording, a United Airlines pilot is heard saying “United One, Air Canada just flew directly over us.” Another voice is heard saying, “Where’s this guy going? He’s on the taxiway.”
The FAA says this type of occurrence is “very rare.” The FAA is investigating how close the Air Canada plane came to the four planes on the taxiway.
An Air Canada spokesperson said they are also investigating.
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