2 planes aborted landings when Southwest jet taxied throughout their runways in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — Two airliners aborted landings at San Francisco Worldwide Airport final week after pilots noticed a Southwest Airways jet taxiing throughout runways on which the opposite planes had been cleared to land.

An air visitors controller instructed the Southwest pilots they need to not have been on the runways through the Could 19 incident.

The Federal Aviation Administration mentioned Thursday that the Southwest aircraft cleared the runways when the opposite planes handed straight overhead, and the choice to abort the landings was “precautionary.”

“The FAA seemed into the occasions and decided the suitable steps have been taken to make sure secure operations,” the company mentioned.

The Nationwide Transportation Security Board mentioned it isn’t investigating the matter.

The incident comes after a half-dozen shut calls in current months which can be being investigated by security officers. These embrace one in February through which a FedEx aircraft flew about 100 toes excessive of a Southwest jet in Austin, Texas, after an air visitors controller cleared each planes to make use of the identical runway.

Within the incident this month, an inbound United Airways aircraft flew as little as a number of hundred toes over San Francisco Bay earlier than pilots noticed the Southwest jet on the identical runway and determined to desert their touchdown.

Shortly after that, the crew of an incoming Alaska Airways aircraft noticed the identical Southwest jet crossing a second, parallel runway, and the pilots aborted their touchdown too.

Each the United and Alaska planes circled round and landed safely.

The air visitors controller instructed the crew of the Southwest jet, “You shouldn’t be on the runway,” based on a recording captured by LiveATC.com. When one of many pilots tried to elucidate, the controller reduce him off, saying, “I don’t want an argument.”

The incident was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The San Francisco airport was the scene of a daunting near-disaster in 2017, when pilots of an Air Canada jet mistook a taxiway for his or her runway and almost landed on high of 4 different planes ready to take off.

Regardless of current shut calls, the performing head of the FAA has mentioned the nation’s air-traffic system is secure, pointing to the dearth of a deadly crash involving a U.S. airline since 2009.