[sparky@home]

This could have been the greatest aviation disaster in history, when a Air Canada flight just narrowly missed landing on a taxiway which had 4 wide bodied air crafts waiting for their turn to take off. The very thought of that disaster is spine tingling.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/1...er-in-history/

[vivek95]

Indeed this could have been the most gruesome disaster ever in history. An animated video of the same that shows how the events actually unfolded out there.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_gIjTjW5dyM&feature=share

[swissknife]

This error seems to be bizarre. Taxiways and Runways have different markings both and day and night. Further more, there is the ILS.

The control tower should have at least checked why the pilot reported that he saw lights on the "runway" rather than confidently say that he is the only one on that "runway". The presence of mind of the pilots on the ground helped avert a major disaster, sure! At least, the control tower ordered for the go around promptly when the pilots on the ground reported that the A320 was approaching the taxiway rather than the runway! Thankfully the flight was able to abort the landing as well.

[AkMar]

An Air Canada Airbus A320-200, registration C-FKCK performing flight AC-759 from Toronto,ON (Canada) to San Francisco,CA (USA) with 140 people on board, was on final approach to runway 28R in night conditions being cleared to land, when a short time after reading back the landing clearance the crew queried tower to confirm they were cleared to land advising they were seeing lights on the runway, tower advised the runway was clear and they were cleared to land indeed. Another voice chimed in calling they were lined up with the taxiway, tower immediately instructed AC-759 to go around as result commenting it looked like they were lined up for taxiway C. The aircraft went around from about 400 feet MSL. Other flight crew taxiing their aircraft on taxiway C commented the A320 was flying straight over them. The A320 positioned for another approach and landed safely about 15 minutes later.

The FAA is investigating the occurrence rated a serious incident. There were four aircraft on taxiway C, which runs parallel to runway 28R to the right of the runway.

On Jul 11th 2017 the Canadian TSB reported the crew of C-FKCK asked ATC to confirm landing clearance as they were seeing lights when the aircraft was 0.6nm before the runway threshold. The controller was coordinating with another facility when a flight crew of another airliner taxiing on taxiway C queried ATC where AC-759 was going and stated it appeared the aircraft was lined up with taxiway C. AC-759 had already overflown taxiway C by about 0.25nm when ATC instructed the aircraft to go around. 4 aircraft were on taxiway C at the time of the occurrence. It is estimated that AC-759 overflew the first two aircraft by 100 feet, the third by about 200 feet and the last by 300 feet. The closest lateral proximity between AC-759 and one of the aircraft on taxiway C was 29 feet. The NTSB is investigating the occurrence.

Details of the incident from Avherald. It is indeed very scary. Need to wait for preliminary investigation reports to know exactly what happened.

[pratyush6]

Honestly, its bone chilling to even read. Quoting from the Website:

Audio from the air traffic controller communication — archived by a user on LiveATC.net and reviewed by this news organization — recorded the confused Air Canada pilot asking if he’s clear to land on 28R because he sees airplane lights on the runway.
“There’s no one on 28R but you,” the air controller responds.
An unidentified voice, presumably another pilot, then chimes in: “Where’s this guy going? He’s on the taxiway.”
The air controller quickly tells the Air Canada pilot to go around, and adds, “It looks like you were lined up for Charlie (Taxiway C) there.”
United Airlines pilot radios in: “United One, Air Canada flew directly over us.” “Yeah, I saw that, guys,” the control tower responds.

[sparky@home]

With the above incident i recall in late seventies, a JAL DC-8 landed on the Juhu runway, in Mumbai. He mistook the runway for the main runway at Santa Cruz.
Luckily he stopped just short of the SV Road, infact the nose was almost touching the fence. The aircraft was a writeoff, i think, but no loss of life. There is NOTAM to that effect, but i think the pilot forgot about that.

[selfdrive]

Whoa! What if the United flight was taking off while Air Canada tried to land? That would have been end game!!

A really close call indeed. Let us hope for some precautionary steps to be taken to avoid such situations in the future

[AkMar]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Whoa! What if the United flight was taking off while Air Canada tried to land? That would have been end game!!

It is far fetched that the United flight could have been taking off while Air Canada tried to land. Single runway was in use at the time of this incident. The 4 aircraft were holding on parallel taxiway besides the runway.

The Air Canada flight had clearance to land, but it aligned with the wrong piece of tarmac. So chances of ATC clearing the United flight to take off at the same time are very remote.

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by AkMar

It is far fetched that the United flight could have been taking off while Air Canada tried to land. Single runway was in use at the time of this incident. The 4 aircraft were holding on parallel taxiway besides the runway.

Further more, take offs and landings are generally in the same direction. So, if the Air Canada was approaching the runway from one direction (say from the North to South), the aircrafts waiting to take off would have to be taking off in the same direction (North to South) and not in the opposite direction.

[BoneCollector]

NTSB has released a report regarding this. The final one is not yet out. The snap shows how close it was!

https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-rele...r20170802.aspx