You probably remember hearing about the Air Canada plane that almost crashed into a plane full of passengers at the San Francisco airport last year. The incident happened in July, and a security camera video was just released yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board that shows just how close they were to "the worst aviation disaster in history."
In the video, Air Canada plane AC320 is going for a full speed landing onto the crowded taxiway. There were 135 passengers on the AC320 flight, and the plane it almost smashed into was nearly full. There were also four other crowded planes nearby. The Air Canada plane flew up at the very last moment, missing the plane by just 30 metres.
The Air Canada flight almost landed on a taxiway jammed with four planes awaiting departure.https://t.co/QAkJN2f14y pic.twitter.com/7buVg6NDCv
When they realized what was about to happen, air traffic controllers demanded that Air Canada abort the landing. The plane on the runway even turned their landing lights on as a last attempt to keep AC320 from smashing into them.
The Air Canada crew on the flight admitted that "something did not look right" as they were landing, and had just enough time to avoid the disaster.
@aircanadaA United Airlines captain explained the devastating scene that this collision would've caused. "Imagine an Airbus cartwheeling over four other aircraft full of fuel and passengers. We're talking over 1,500 casualties and five aircraft in flames."
But, the incident wasn't even the Air Canada pilot's fault. Apparently the inbound traffic control system at the San Francisco International Airport briefly went out, and only came back on at the exact moment that the Air Canada plane narrowly avoided the crash.
The captain on AC320 is said to be a highly experienced pilot with around 20,000 flight hours and 4,800 hours as a captain. The entire incident is being described as a miscommunication, and thankfully the AC plane "landed without incident."
Source: Global News