After Air Canada Near-Miss At SFO, CA Insurance Commissioner Calls For Investigation

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, CA — California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones was a passenger on an Air Canada plane that flew just 100 feet over another aircraft at San Francisco International Airport earlier this month and has sent a letter to the airline requesting a thorough investigation into the near-miss.

Air Canada Flight AC759 was cleared to land at SFO's Runway 28R on July 7 just before midnight but the pilot inadvertently prepared to land on the parallel Taxiway C where four planes were located, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

A preliminary report by the Canadian National Transportation Safety Board released last week found that the Air Canada flight crew asked air traffic control to confirm their landing clearance after seeing lights
that weren't supposed to be there.

One of the flight crews on the taxiway also inquired about where the plane was set to land, and an air traffic controller instructed the Air Canada crew to circle around, with the plane coming as close as 100 feet to
one of the planes below.

Jones, head of the state's Department of Insurance, revealed Monday that he was a passenger on that flight from Toronto to SFO and said he sent a letter to Air Canada and three aviation and transportation regulators in which he described the near-miss.

"As the plane was close to landing, it suddenly went into a steep climb and we heard the sound of (the) plane's jet engines increase significantly. The plane climbed over the airport and swung around to make
another approach," he wrote.

"Passengers were not told that the plane had almost landed on a taxiway on which there were four other planes fully loaded with passengers and fuel. Instead, the pilot made a nonchalant announcement that he had to go around due to traffic at the airport," Jones wrote.

He called on Air Canada to "conduct a thorough and complete investigation of this incident," for the airline to cooperate with U.S. and Canadian regulators investigating it, and to notify passengers of the results of the investigations and steps being taken to prevent a similar case from happening in the future.

"As a passenger of Air Canada Flight 759 I believe we have a right to know what happened, why it happened, and what can be done to make sure that no plane and its passengers are placed at such risk of loss again,"
Jones wrote.

The flight had 135 passengers and five crewmembers on board the Airbus A320 plane, according to Air Canada.

— By Bay City News Service / Image via Shutterstock