Air Canada flight nearly lands on crowded taxiway at San Francisco International Airport

An Air Canada plane touching down at San Francisco International Airport almost landed on a taxiway crowded with four other planes, a near-catastrophe that is now under federal investigation. Air Canada flight 759 en route from Toronto was cleared to land just before midnight Friday at runway 28R, according to the FAA. But the pilot had lined up the Airbus A320 for a taxiway that runs parallel to the runway, where four planes had queued and were awaiting clearance for departure, the FAA said. It’s unclear how close the Air Canada flight came to the ground, and the FAA is trying to ascertain that distance in an ongoing probe. Ross Aimer, a retired United captain, told the San Jose Mercury-News, which first reported the incident, that if the pilot was not told to correct course, the scene would have been “horrific.” “If it is true, what happened probably came close to the greatest aviation disaster in history,” Aimer said. An Air Canada representative could not immediately be reached for comment.<br/>