Just before midnight on July 7, 2017, an Air Canada Airbus A320 came within a few seconds of landing atop a line of four airliners waiting on a parallel taxiway to take off from Runway 28R at San Francisco International Airport (KSFO). Were it not for alerts from two of the waiting crews and instantaneous corrective action, the resulting carnage would likely have been massive and the human suffering incalculable.

The incident occurred in clear weather. Crews in the airplanes sitting on Taxiway C  a United Boeing 787, a Philippine Airlines Airbus A340, another United 787 and a United Boeing 737  could see a stream of inbound aircraft at least 15 mi. long. The waiting crews were impatient. Departure delays were running at least 30 min. because Runway 28L was closed for construction, thus arrivals and departures were sharing 28R.

Air Canada Flight 759 from Toronto with a crew of five and 135 passengers was on a 1-mi. final completing the FMS Bridge Visual Approach to 28R (see the approach plate). The Airbus had been cleared to land on 28R, but something just didn't look right to the crews of the first two airplanes waiting on the taxiway. The Airbus seemed to be heading right at them.

The captain of the first airplane in the taxiway queue (UAL Flight 1), thumbed his mic and said, "Where is that guy going?" The crew of Philippine Airlines (PAL Flight 115) saw what was happening and selected their lights to TAKEOFF mode thus lighting the taxiway before them along with the empennage of UAL 1.

The Air Canada Airbus descended to 100 ft. AGL and roared over the first United 787. At that point the tower controller realized what was happening and ordered the Airbus to go missed, but by then the Airbus crew had realized their mistake and begun a go-around. Still, the Air Canada aircraft continued to descend to a minimum altitude of about 60 ft. AGL as it overflew the second airplane on the taxiway, clearing the A340's tail by about 20 ft. before it started to climb.

No one was hurt, no metal was bent, but the system had come close to total failure, putting hundreds of people at risk. . . .

Quoted:
Wonder if Harrison Ford was flying...........

Could have had a terrible outcome

Quoted:

Would have likely been as bad or worse than Tenerife

Quoted:
Always, always, always tune up the approach....always.