U.S. safety officials fault Air Canada pilots for last year’s near disaster
United States federal safety officials blame two Air Canada pilots for coming within three to six metres of crashing their jetliner into a plane on the ground last year in San Francisco.
The Air Canada pilots were apparently confused because one of two parallel runways was closed and dark before the late-night incident. The crew was seconds from landing their Airbus A320 jet on a taxiway where other planes loaded with passengers were waiting to take off.
“We could not have gotten literally or figuratively any closer to having a major disaster,” said the safety board’s vice chairman, Bruce Landsberg, during a hearing Tuesday in Washington.
Underscoring the severity of the incident, the NTSB’s top aviation-safety staffer, John DeLisi, said it was the first time the board considered a major investigation for an event in which there were no injuries or damaged planes.