Page 21 - Twin and Turbine September 2017

In the recent incident involving the ACA Airbus 320, the aircraft was cleared to land on 28R in SFO, which has a parallel taxiway, Charlie, to the right (North) of the runway. Runway 28L was dark and unlighted (it did have a lighted “X” at the approach end), which presented the expected appearance of two parallel, lighted runways. Except one was taxiway Charlie.
Depicted here is the lighting system available for Runway 28R at SFO. Always use of all tools, including navaids such as the localizer or RNAV course, and visual references such as the approach lighting system and PAPI.
We See Some Lights
The event was almost an accident; potentially one with the largest number fatalities in U.S. aviation history: more than 1,000. Most likely related to fatigue and confusion rather than professionalism, it happened in the darkness at SFO this past July. The 20,000-hour captain and 10,000-hour FO both missed the problem and were saved from disaster by a pilot on the ground and the tower controller.
Shortly before midnight, an Airbus 320 was cleared to land on 28R in SFO, which has a parallel taxiway, Charlie, to the right (North) of the runway. Runway 28L was dark and unlighted (it did have a lighted “X” at the approach end), which presented the expected appearance of two parallel, lighted runways. Except this time, one was a taxiway.
There were four airplanes full of passengers on taxiway Charlie waiting
September 2017
to take off. The pilot on approach, while hand-f lying the airplane, lined up on Charlie instead of 28R. Sensing that something was wrong because he saw airplane lights on “the runway,” he queried the controller asking if they were still cleared to land on 28R:
Airbus: “And, tower, just want to confirm, ah, we see some lights on the runway there. Confirm cleared to land on 28R?”
Tower: “OK, 759. Confirmed cleared to land runway 28R. There’s no one on 28R but you.”
The next voice, most likely one of the pilots on taxiway Charlie, chimed in:
“Where’s this guy going? He’s on the taxiway.”
Tower heard the radio call, figured it out after a couple of seconds and directed a go around adding:
“It looks like you were lined up for Charlie there.”
Preliminary NTSB findings indicated a blind spot in the Airport Surface Surveillance Capability (ASSC) system prevented an automated warning horn from sounding in the tower. At their lowest point of 81 feet, as they passed over the second of four planes on the taxiway, the Airbus was just 26 feet above the top of a 787’s tail. According to an analysis of accidents from 2006 to 2015 by Boeing, about 47 percent of fatalities occur during final approach and landing. This was nearly one of those 47 percent and would have been another landing disaster at SFO. The last one also in the month of July.
In the Part 121 world and a good portion of corporate aviation, we operate with two cockpit crew members. Both are fully qualified to operate the airplane by themselves if necessary. The general public’s misconception is that the second pilot is simply a backup for when the old, gray, senile pilot has a heart attack or chokes on his crew meal.
TWIN & TURBINE • 19