Probable cause of Air Canada flight near miss to be determined

After an Air Canada flight came close to disaster last year, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is set to determine a probable cause for the close call.

Air Canada flight 759, an Airbus A-320, was cleared to land on runway 28R at San Francisco International Airport on July 7, 2017, but the aircraft lined up on parallel taxiway C, which had four airplanes on it awaiting takeoff clearance.

The flight descended below 100 feet above the ground and initiated a go-around after overflying the first airplane on taxiway C. The plane came very close to striking a flight lined up on the taxiway.

The pilots told investigators last year that they "did not recall seeing aircraft on taxiway but that something did not look right to them,” the NTSB said.

Both pilots on the flight were very experienced. The captain, who was flying the plane, had more than 20,000 hours of flying time, and the co-pilot had about 10,000 hours.

In May, federal officials blamed pilot error for three other close calls in the previous 16 months at the San Francisco airport. Pilots say that the airport, with parallel runways close to each other, requires special attention during landings.

The Air Canada incident led the Federal Aviation Administration to issue new rules for the airport covering nighttime landings when one of the runways is closed and better late-night control-tower staffing.

With files from Canadian Press.