Fly320's to the white courtesy phone please

[AmbulanceDriver]

Saw this pop up in my news feed this morning:

http://www.avgeekery.com/breaking-ntsb-releases-extremely-close-call-photos-from-air-canada-incident-at-sfo-airport/

Short version.  Air Canada flight mistakenly lines up for night landing at SFO on taxiway (with multiple aircraft present on said taxiway) instead of on the active runway.

The article actually goes pretty in depth on the incident itself, but just curious on the perspective from those with experience...  I imagine the general aviation types (*ahem* Fitz */ahem*) could definitely add in a different perspective - especially since you don't have nearly as many fancy instruments in the GA aircraft to tell you that you've screwed up.

[Fly320s]

Uh, yeah, they screwed up.  That simple.

Normally, when landing in SFO on the 28s, which is most of the time, planes follow a published approach.  That could be an ILS, or an RNAV, or a charted visual approach.  Maybe Air Canada followed one of those approaches until going visual and then lined up on the taxiway.  At night, planes that are on the ground are hard to see, so Air Canada might not have seen them, but runway lights are easy to see.  SFO 28R and 28L are lit up like Christmas at Clark Griswald's house.  And there are approach lights with big, flashing strobes to get your attention.  On the other hand, taxiways are barely lighted, but at least taxiways use different color lights.

So, those guys screwed up.  Maybe they were tired.  Maybe they were both colorblind.  Maybe they were both playing Angry Birds on their ipads.  It doesn't matter, though, because they screwed up.

A similar event happened in BOS a few years ago with a general aviation plane.  The plane almost landed on a taxiway, and one of my friends who was working, but a tower supervisor told the plane to go around.  Close call, but no crash.

[Angel Eyes]

I'm not a pilot, but ...

At the time, 28L was closed for repairs (I presume a closed runway is not lit).  Perhaps the ACA pilot forgot that and mistook the taxiway for 28R?

[just Warren]

I've flown into SFO a few times as cattle a passenger and I've got to say I don't like the looks of that place at all. Seems very constricted compared to LAX or SAC or even LAS which I assume is way smaller than both of those.

[Fly320s]

I'm not a pilot, but ...

At the time, 28L was closed for repairs (I presume a closed runway is not lit).  Perhaps the ACA pilot forgot that and mistook the taxiway for 28R?

That is correct, runway 28L was closed and unlit except for a large, flashing X on the runway.   Yes, they probably forgot about the runway closure and lined up on the taxiway.

[Hawkmoon]

The article actually goes pretty in depth on the incident itself, but just curious on the perspective from those with experience...  I imagine the general aviation types (*ahem* Fitz */ahem*) could definitely add in a different perspective - especially since you don't have nearly as many fancy instruments in the GA aircraft to tell you that you've screwed up.

Actually, Harrison Ford would be better able to address this than Fitz ... since he did the same thing not long ago.

[AmbulanceDriver]

Actually, Harrison Ford would be better able to address this than Fitz ... since he did the same thing not long ago.

I was thinking more along the lines of how to avoid it rather than a how-to guide.... 

[Fly320s]

I was thinking more along the lines of how to avoid it rather than a how-to guide.... 

Avoid it?  Don't fly to California obviously.