FAA changes San Francisco landing rules after close call

Federal officials have issued new rules for night-time landings and control-tower staffing at San Francisco International after an Air Canada jet nearly struck planes on the ground last month. The new procedures will apply when a runway parallel to a plane's designated runway is closed, as it was July 7, possibly contributing to the Air Canada pilots' confusion. When an adjacent runway is shut down at night, air traffic controllers will no longer let pilots make so-called visual approaches to land. Instead, they must use instrument landing systems or satellite-based systems to line up for the correct runway. The FAA said Thursday that the agency also will require 2 controllers in the airport tower during busy late-night periods. Only 1 controller was working during the Air Canada incident. <br/>