Air Canada Lines up on Taxiway at SFO

July 11, 2017, 12:26 AM

First Han Solo and now this. Along with the C-130 in MI, not a good aviation day.

Air Canada Plane Mistakenly Lines Up to Land on Taxiway at San Francisco International Airport: FAA

An Air Canada plane on Friday inadvertently lined up to land on a taxiway at San Francisco International Airport before being turned away by an air traffic controller, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Air Canada A320 aircraft had been given the green light to land on Runway 28R, but the pilot somehow positioned the plane to land on Taxiway C, which runs parallel to Runway 28R, according to the FAA. The air traffic controller noticed the issue and prompted the plane to abort its landing attempt and make another pass, according to the FAA. The plane circled around and landed successfully on its second attempt, the FAA said.

The Mercury News reported Monday that there were four planes fully loaded with passengers and fuel sitting on Taxiway C at the time of the incident, according to the FAA.

NBC Bay Area

July 11, 2017, 12:29 AM

Gustofer

Apparently he missed that huge "28R" painted on the concrete.

July 11, 2017, 12:53 AM

kkina

July 11, 2017, 03:12 AM

tacfoley

quote:
Originally posted by kkina:

Oh, you mean THAT 28R?

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

tac

July 11, 2017, 06:59 AM

Russ59

How common is this? Are all aborted or can they fix it? I assume that depends on distance out on the glide path.

July 11, 2017, 07:29 AM

Muddflap

quote:
Originally posted by kkina:

That's in English. These guys were Canadian.

July 11, 2017, 08:00 AM

tatortodd

quote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
quote:
Originally posted by kkina:

Oh, you mean THAT 28R?

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

tac

That is not a believable Canadian quote as it is missing both the apology and the eh?

July 11, 2017, 09:07 AM

Otto Pilot

quote:
Originally posted by Russ59:
How common is this? Are all aborted or can they fix it? I assume that depends on distance out on the glide path.

Common to line up on a taxiway? Exceedingly uncommon. I suspect they were not paying particularly close to their navigation tools because those navigation aids give pretty darn precise info close to the ground.

Common to go around? Not common but happens often enough.

"Are all aborted"? Not sure what that means.

You can do a go-around/rejected landing so low that you bounce the wheels on the ground. The procedures, which are charted, will remain the same.

______________________________________________
Aeronautics confers beauty and grandeur, combining art and science for those who devote themselves to it. . . . The aeronaut, free in space, sailing in the infinite, loses himself in the immense undulations of nature. He climbs, he rises, he soars, he reigns, he hurtles the proud vault of the azure sky. — Georges Besançon

July 11, 2017, 10:21 AM

Top Gun Supply

As Otto said, it is not common. The media goes in cycles of reporting these types of incidents, so it appears to be happening more often.

July 11, 2017, 11:53 AM

Sigmund

Several years ago an Asiana 777 crashed into 28L, totally different cirsumstances.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..._Airlines_Flight_214

July 11, 2017, 12:01 PM

LS1 GTO

quote:
Originally posted by tacfoley:
quote:
Originally posted by kkina:

Oh, you mean THAT 28R?

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

tac

Actually it was "but wait, that one is left of mine... I wonder when they put mine in...?"

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

"If dogs don't go to Heaven, I want to go where they go" Will Rogers

The definition of the words we used, carry a meaning of their own...

July 11, 2017, 12:27 PM

H&K-Guy

Canadians. Meh...

I'd rather trust my life to Aeroflot.

Actually, I have trusted my life to Aeroflot.

H&K-Guy

July 11, 2017, 12:32 PM

Rightwire

quote:
Originally posted by Otto Pilot:
quote:
Originally posted by Russ59:
How common is this? Are all aborted or can they fix it? I assume that depends on distance out on the glide path.

Common to line up on a taxiway? Exceedingly uncommon. I suspect they were not paying particularly close to their navigation tools because those navigation aids give pretty darn precise info close to the ground.

Common to go around? Not common but happens often enough.

"Are all aborted"? Not sure what that means.

You can do a go-around/rejected landing so low that you bounce the wheels on the ground. The procedures, which are charted, will remain the same.

Are ya saying the needle wasn't centered and no one noticed? Seems like that should be in a check list somewhere.

Pronoun: His Royal Highness and benevolent Majesty of all he surveys

343 - Never Forget

Its better to be Pavlov's dog than Schrodinger's cat

There are three types of mistakes; Those you learn from, those you suffer from, and those you don't survive.

July 11, 2017, 12:43 PM

Sigmanic

quote:
Originally posted by Sigmund:
Several years ago an Asiana 777 crashed into 28L, totally different cirsumstances.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..._Airlines_Flight_214

Ah yes, Sumting Wong....and so on.

July 11, 2017, 12:50 PM

Pipe Smoker

"Captain Aimer said that if the tower hadn't been able to swiftly redirect the Air Canada plane, disaster would have followed.

'If you could imagine an Airbus colliding with four passenger aircraft wide bodies, full of fuel and passengers, then you can imagine how horrific this could have been,' he remarked."

July 11, 2017, 12:51 PM

Otto Pilot

quote:
Originally posted by Rightwire:
...

Are ya saying the needle wasn't centered and no one noticed? Seems like that should be in a check list somewhere.

Well I don't want to Monday Morning Quarterback another pilot, but essentially, yeah, unfortunately.

And that typically wouldn't be in a checklist, that's just basic Airmanship 101. Use all possible resources to help you get where you want to go, and line up on the concrete outlined in WHITE lights (runway), not BLUE ones (taxiway).

July 11, 2017, 12:55 PM

FN in MT

Bobby....Hold my Molson Eh....I need to land this bugger.

July 11, 2017, 01:05 PM

JALLEN

quote:
Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
"Captain Aimer said that if the tower hadn't been able to swiftly redirect the Air Canada plane, disaster would have followed.

'If you could imagine an Airbus colliding with four passenger aircraft wide bodies, full of fuel and passengers, then you can imagine how horrific this could have been,' he remarked."

Actually, something like this happened years ago, I think in Mexico City, where a very senior pilot in a widebody lined up and landed on a runway closed for maintenance and filled with earthmoving machinery. He forgot to side step.

Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

July 11, 2017, 01:17 PM

Otto Pilot

quote:
Originally posted by JALLEN:
quote:
Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
"Captain Aimer said that if the tower hadn't been able to swiftly redirect the Air Canada plane, disaster would have followed.

'If you could imagine an Airbus colliding with four passenger aircraft wide bodies, full of fuel and passengers, then you can imagine how horrific this could have been,' he remarked."

Actually, something like this happened years ago, I think in Mexico City, where a very senior pilot in a widebody lined up and landed on a runway closed for maintenance and filled with earthmoving machinery. He forgot to side step.

Western Airlines 2605. A bad situation that one. Bad weather, closed runway, and difference in terminology between Mexican and US controllers

July 11, 2017, 01:54 PM

Rightwire

quote:
Originally posted by Otto Pilot:
quote:
Originally posted by Rightwire:
...

Are ya saying the needle wasn't centered and no one noticed? Seems like that should be in a check list somewhere.

Well I don't want to Monday Morning Quarterback another pilot, but essentially, yeah, unfortunately.

And that typically wouldn't be in a checklist, that's just basic Airmanship 101. Use all possible resources to help you get where you want to go, and line up on the concrete outlined in WHITE lights (runway), not BLUE ones (taxiway).

Well I know that is how it works in a Piper Archer II so it has to be similar to an A320... Albeit lower and slower.

When I was a kid my sister's best friends dad worked for the FAA and he and his crew checked and adjusted the ILS systems at all airports in their region. He had two retired Navy pilots on his crew... That was some fun flying in a converted Sabre Liner