Pilots are trained to respond to the flashing-light warnings the FAA said were used in the airport tower. Pilots, he said, develop a sixth sense telling them when radio silence indicates a problem. But he said "it is uncommon for a communications difficulty to go on as long as this one did." John Cox, a former airline pilot and now a safety consultant, said now and then tower instructions are lost because of other chatter on the radio. "The hair on the back of my neck would raise up if I'm not hearing anything on the tower frequency for 10 seconds in San Francisco," longtime American Airlines pilot Chris Manno said. They say that silence from the tower at the busy airport should have been a clear message to the Air Canada crew. Pilots say monitoring radio traffic is especially important in San Francisco, because its layout of two sets of parallel runways means controllers often give them last-minute instructions on airspeed and other issues. Upon landing the crew was informed the tower had attempted unsuccessfully to contact the aircraft, however the message was not received by the crew," Fitzpatrick said. "After receiving proper clearance to land it proceeded to do so and landed normally. He said that a radar replay showed the runway was in fact cleared of the earlier arrival by a Southwest Airlines jet when the Air Canada plane landed.Īir Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said the company was investigating the incident. "Air Canada did not respond to the verbal instructions or to the light gun instruction," Gregor said. Doing so is a standard procedure when an air crew does not respond to radio instructions. The air traffic control supervisor then used a flashing "red light gun" shined from the control tower windows toward the plane to alert the crew, Gregor said. The instructions were met with silence, according to the audio clip posted at. The controller's voice gets slower and more emphatic. "Air Canada 781, go around," the controller said, using terminology telling the pilot to abort the landing.Īudio from the control tower indicates the Air Canada flight was told six times in less than 35 seconds to "go around" for another landing attempt. The cockpit acknowledged the instruction.īut air traffic control then reversed its clearance, concerned a plane that had just landed would not be off the runway in time. The Airbus A320 was given initial clearance to land when it was about 10 kilometres from the airport, FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor said. Sunday's incident involved a flight from Montreal. In July, an Air Canada jet with 140 people on board nearly landed on a taxiway where four planes were waiting before takeoff, prompting the FAA to issue new rules for nighttime landings and control tower staffing at the airport. The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it is investigating the second serious safety issue in three months involving an Air Canada passenger jet landing at San Francisco airport. "That's pretty evident," the controller responded. That didn't work either. The plane landed and one of the pilots then radioed that he was having problems with the radio. Each time, the order went unanswered.įinally, air traffic controllers Sunday night took out an emergency red light and aimed it outside their window toward the jet to try to get the pilots' attention. Six times the control tower at San Francisco International Airport ordered an incoming Air Canada plane to abort its landing, fearing another plane might be on the runway.
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