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Why I don't fly Air Canada: SFO near miss might have triggered ‘greatest aviation disaster in history’

Read the article, then listen to the audio on there that was from the actual plane. They were SECONDS from this plane crashing into multiple others on the taxiway (very little time between "go around" and "he flew right over us" on that audio). As you can guess, a plane going 160mph (I googled it... landing speed for an Airbus A320) doesn't stop when it hits the FIRST plane in its way.

“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 said.

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The aircraft had been cleared to land on Runway 28R, which runs parallel with that taxiway, according to the FAA. The pilot was flying the plane manually on a clear night when he lined up wrong, the federal agency said.

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I bolded what will probably become the focus of the investigation, but lest you think that this all could have been solved by automation, I give you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana_Airlines_Flight_214

The NTSB further determined that the pilot's faulty mental model of the airplane's automation logic led to his inadvertent deactivation of automatic airspeed control. In addition, Asiana's automation policy emphasized the full use of all automation and did not encourage manual flight during line operations.

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The interesting part about THAT crash (and why I picked it) was that it occurred on runway 28L of the SAME airport. If you look at it, it's actually one runway over, parallel. Hence 28R in this case (right), and 28L in that one (left). Either way, same airport, nearly the same runway, near-miss in this case, not-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been in that previous case.

If anything, this incident shows how f'n important it is that everybody at an airport is paying attention all the time. Too many checklists and other distractions might have meant that the pilots on the ground weren't paying attention. Luckily for hundreds (possibly thousands) of people, they were paying attention and spoke up.

Those super busy airports like SFO or ATL are so crowded with traffic. I'm quite surprised this doesn't happen more often.

This makes Harrison Ford look less silly.

sixpackshaker said:

This makes Harrison Ford look less silly.

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Well, this didn't help:

drawn_inward said:

Well, this didn't help:

View attachment 24830

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But he is a professional actor, not pilot. So there is no excuse for Crystal Skull.

sixpackshaker said:

But he is a professional actor, not pilot. So there is no excuse for Crystal Skull.

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Maybe it's only a part-time gig.

Air Canada and San Francisco Airport apparently just don't like each other: Again? FAA investigates another Air Canada landing mix-up at SFO

Just three months after an Air Canada plane nearly landed on a crowded SFO taxiway, the FAA has launched another investigation into why a second passenger jet from that airline Sunday ignored a San Francisco air traffic controller’s repeated order to abort a landing.

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However, as the plane approached, an air traffic controller repeated six straight times for the Air Canada pilot to execute a “go-around” — an aborted landing where the plane pulls up and circles around to approach again. There was no response, according to an air traffic control radio recording reviewed by Bay Area News Group. The tower ordered the go-around because it was not certain if an earlier arriving plane had fully cleared the runway, Gregor said.

“The Air Canada crew did not acknowledge any of the controller’s instructions,” Gregor said.

As the plane got closer to landing, a tower supervisor used a red light gun to alert the crew to abort the landing. A flashing light gun is “standard protocol” when an air crew is not responding to radio instructions, Gregor said.

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This article is great IMO because it made the same connection I did to 3 months ago, which was the OP of this thread. I'd laugh if AC got banned from that airport or something since they obviously can't handle it!

Eriol said:

Air Canada and San Francisco Airport apparently just don't like each other: Again? FAA investigates another Air Canada landing mix-up at SFO

This article is great IMO because it made the same connection I did to 3 months ago, which was the OP of this thread. I'd laugh if AC got banned from that airport or something since they obviously can't handle it!

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So comms failure? Hope so, otherwise, what the hell was going in that cockpit to keep the aircrew from responding to six straight orders from the tower?

Gared said:

So comms failure? Hope so, otherwise, what the hell was going in that cockpit to keep the aircrew from responding to six straight orders from the tower?

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The jerkface in me immediately thought "Were the flight crew Quebecois refusing to acknowledge english?"

GasBandit said:

The jerkface in me immediately thought "Were the flight crew Quebecois refusing to acknowledge english?"

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I mean, Don't dehumanize groups or individuals

Gruebeard said:

I mean, Don't dehumanize groups or individuals

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It is hard to call the 2 people in the aircrew a group.

sixpackshaker said:

It is hard to call the 2 people in the aircrew a group.

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Not the aircrew. Gas's dehumanizing of Texans.

GasBandit said:

The jerkface in me immediately thought "Were the flight crew Quebecois refusing to acknowledge english?"

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Considering air conversations are in English even if in France and between two Frenchmen (well, they're supposed to be, anyway), that would be somewhat stupid.

That said, I think how you interpret the story may reveal something about you. My mind went straight to pilot/stewardess hanky panky distraction.

Bubble181 said:

That said, I think how you interpret the story may reveal something about you. My mind went straight to pilot/stewardess hanky panky distraction.

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Even for the most "that kind" of airline, not during landing.

My mind went to what was officially reported: radio failure. Now my reasoning was because their planes are pieces of crap (maintenance) but that's influenced partially by the fact that I have an older relative who used to work (high up in) Canadian Airlines before Air Canada bought them ("merged" officially) and he "knew things" about how the new order would be, and didn't want to be responsible if/when something happened (he was high enough that something "bad" might come at him... even if following directives from above), and so took the severance package post-merge rather than be involved. But I'll admit that was around 20 years ago, but he didn't like the look of it then.

I wasn't being entirely serious. I'm fairly sure they wouldn't be otherwise occupied during landing, no.

Bubble181 said:

Considering air conversations are in English even if in France and between two Frenchmen (well, they're supposed to be, anyway), that would be somewhat stupid.

That said, I think how you interpret the story may reveal something about you. My mind went straight to pilot/stewardess hanky panky distraction.

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You'd think so, but my father, an airline pilot, said Quebec is one of the most obnoxious places to fly to because of their Air Tower Control personnel. He's been radioed at in French on several occasions and had to make multiple requests for directions in English. Flying into Paris? English all the way.

Terrik said:

You'd think so, but my father, an airline pilot, said Quebec is one of the most obnoxious places to fly to because of their Air Tower Control personnel. He's been radioed at in French on several occasions and had to make multiple requests for directions in English. Flying into Paris? English all the way.

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I'd just reply in Dutch until they got the message. Not respecting international language accords is horribly dangerous.

This may be a good place to mention I just discovered the YouTube sensation that was Kennedy Steve, a recently retired JFK ground controller.