A probe has been opened into an apparent near-miss involving an Air Canada aircraft at San Francisco international airport.
A flight from Toronto was cleared to land on a runway last Friday, but the pilot “inadvertently” lined up for a taxiway where four aircraft were waiting to depart, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration.
An air traffic controller became aware of the problem and ordered the pilot to pull up and make another approach.
The Airbus 320 then landed safely.
The FAA is investigating the distance between the Air Canada aircraft and the aircraft lined up on the taxiway, which runs parallel to the runway, the BBC reported. The regulator described the incident as “very rare”.
Air Canada said 135 passengers and five crew members were on the flight from Toronto.
A spokesman told CBC News: “Air Canada flight AC759 from Toronto was preparing to land at San Francisco airport Friday night when the aircraft initiated a go-around.
“The aircraft landed normally without incident. We are still investigating the circumstances and therefore have no additional information to offer.”
Retired United Airlines captain Ross Aimer, chief executive of Aero Consulting Experts, told the Mercury News: “If it is true, what happened probably came close to the greatest aviation disaster in history.
“If you could imagine an Airbus colliding with four passenger aircraft wide bodies, full of fuel and passengers, then you can imagine how horrific this could have been.”
The deadliest incident in aviation history was in 1977, when 583 people were killed after two Boeing aircraft collided on a runway at Los Rodeos airport in northern Tenerife.