Pilot error behind Air Canada A320 near-miss at San Francisco

A flight crew's lack of awareness of a runway closure at San Francisco was the probable cause behind a near-miss involving an Air Canada Airbus A320 that almost landed on a taxiway on 7 July 2017, says the US NTSB. The flight crew also failed to manually tune the instrument landing system frequency while on approach, and both pilots reported feeling fatigued - factors that contributed to the incident, said NTSB investigators in a board meeting as they reached the final stages of the investigation into the incident. The Air Canada A320 executed a go-around when the crew realised it was aligned with the taxiway instead of runway 28R. At that time, four other aircraft were on taxiway C preparing to take off, and the A320 overflew them. NTSB investigators have noted that the A320 was at one point between "10 and 20 feet" away from another aircraft. "I do not want to sensationalise it, but this was a very close call," says NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt during the board meeting. No one was injured in the incident involving flight AC759, and there was no damage to the A320 which had carried 135 passengers and five crew members.<br/>