The Story of Air Canada Flight 759: The Worst Accident That Never Happened
The story of Air Canada flight 759 could’ve easily been the worst collision ever in the history of commercial aviation, potentially causing more than 1,000 casualties.
Air Canada flight 759 was a scheduled passenger service from Toronto (YYZ) to San Francisco (SFO). This particular incident occurred on July 7, 2017, operated by an Airbus A320–200, as it came in for a late-night landing on SFO’s runway 28R. Instead of lining up with the correct runway, the aircraft lined up with taxiway Charlie, where four other outbound flights were holding short for takeoff.
When flight 759 asked for final landing clearance, the ATC cleared it for landing and the jet continued its descent. At this instant, one of the pilots of United 1 (outbound to Sydney) saw that flight 759 lined up with the occupied taxiway as it was first in line for takeoff. They called out on the frequency, “Where’s this guy going? He’s on the taxiway!”
During later investigations, it was found that flight 759 came extremely close to flight 115. How close? The gears of flight 759 came within 14 feet, or 4.3 meters, of the tail of flight 115. To put this into perspective, the height of an A320 is more than 38 feet.
If the first officer of flight 759 hadn’t been keen enough to correct their error, they would’ve crashed into the tail of flight 1 and directly into flight 115. After which the fuselage of flight 759 would either slide into the ocean or into the other two aircrafts, making this the worst accident in history — worse than the Tenerife Airport Disaster.
What’s the Cause of Such Error?
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) published a report analyzing the potential causes of this accident.
Runway Lighting
It’s important to know that runway 28L was closed due to construction work. Because of this, the runway lights were off on runway 28L. As flight 759 came in for approach, the pilots saw only runway 28R and taxiway Charlie illuminated, hence thought that taxiway Charlie was the right runway. Other pilots landing earlier that day also reported that the aircraft holding short on taxiway Charlie made it seem like taxiway Charlie was a runway.
Pilot Fatigue
When Air Canada flight 759 came in for landing at SFO, it was 12 a.m. local time — which means 3 a.m. Toronto time. The first officer has not rested in 12 hours while the captain has not rested in 19 hours. According to U.S. pilot fatigue regulations, they are still allowed to fly in these conditions. Transport Canada later changed pilot fatigue regulations to minimize the risks of accidents of the cause.
Here’s a the link to the official NTSB incident report: Taxiway Overflight | Air Canada Flight 759 | Airbus A320–211, C-FKFK | San Francisco, California | July 7, 2017
After the incident, both parties have revised their pilot fatigues regulations to prevent such accidents from occurring in the future.
