Air Canada Flight 759

On July 7, 2017, an Airbus A320-211 operating as Air Canada Flight 759 was nearly involved in an accident at San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County, California, United States. The flight, which originated at Toronto Pearson International Airport, had been cleared by air traffic control to land on runway 28R and was on final approach to land on that runway; however, instead of lining up with the runway, the aircraft had lined up with the parallel taxiway, on which four fully loaded and fuelled passenger airplanes were stopped awaiting takeoff clearance. The flight crew initiated a go-around prior to landing, after which it landed on 28R without further incident. The aircraft on the taxiway departed for their intended destinations without further incident. The subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the Air Canada airplane descended to 59 feet (18 m) above the ground before it began its climb, and that it missed colliding with one of the aircraft on the taxiway by 14 feet (4.3 m).

Incident

. AC 759 mistakenly lined up to land on Taxiway C, shown with the dotted blue line, instead of Runway 28R, shown with the dashed white line, before being ordered to abort the landing. At 11:46 p.m. local time, Air Canada Flight 759 (AC 759), carrying 135 passengers and 5 crew members, except for a lighted flashing "X" at the eastern runway threshold. even though runways and taxiways are lit with different colours and intensities. On Taxiway C, four airplanes were queueing for takeoff, three from United Airlines and one from Philippine Airlines. According to the flight data recorder, the pilots advanced the thrust levers when the airplane was above the ground. The airplane descended as low as , approximately 2.5 seconds after the thrust levers had been advanced. Following a reconstruction of events, one pilot not involved in the incident noted that had the crew waited five more seconds before pulling up, it would have collided with the third airplane on the taxiway, which was that of United Airlines Flight 863 (UAL 863). which should have alerted the tower of a potential conflict between runway and taxiway movements. AC 759 disappeared from the local controller's ASSC display for twelve seconds, between 11:55:52 and 11:56:04 p.m. local time (from shortly after the AC 759 pilot asked for confirmation that 28R was clear, to the time the UA 001 pilot noted that AC 759 was lined up for Taxiway C), as AC 759 was too far off-course from 28R. AC 759 completed its go-around and landed without incident after the second approach. A single air traffic controller was monitoring ground and tower frequencies, which would typically be handled by two controllers. ==Aircraft==

Aircraft

The aircraft flying AC 759 that night was C-FKCK, an Airbus A320-200. The aircraft was approximately 25 years old at the time of the incident, getting its airworthiness certificate on January 17, 1992. ==Investigation==

Investigation

The incident was not considered reportable under then-current federal regulations. However, former NTSB chairman Jim Hall called it "the most significant near-miss we've had in this decade" and urged the NTSB to re-evaluate those reporting requirements. The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was informed of the incident on July 9 and took the lead on the investigation with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) served as a facilitator to convey information between Air Canada and the NTSB. NTSB assigned identification number DCA17IA148 to the incident. A retired pilot stated that SFO requires "precision flying" as the two runways (28R and 28L) are laterally separated by , and Taxiway C is separated from 28R by less than . Other pilots pointed out that some airlines require all aircraft to use the instrument landing system (ILS) regardless of weather or visibility, which would have led the crew to realize that they were not lined up with runway 28R. The cockpit voice recorder had been overwritten before the investigation was launched, as C-FKCK flew three more flights on July 8 before the NTSB was informed of the near-miss on July 9. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) received six recommendations: identifying approaches requiring an unusual manual frequency input; displaying it noticeably on aeronautical charts; reviewing NOTAMs to prioritize and present relevant information; requiring aircraft landing in B or C airspace to alert pilots when not aligned with a runway; modifying airports to alert on collision risks and clearly showing closed runways, as construction lighting on 28L looked like ramp lighting. The NTSB published their final report in September 2018; five recommendations were made. A former NTSB investigator observed deficiencies in the investigation, criticizing the board for avoiding introspection and indicating that it is more reactive than proactive.