SFO near misses prompt ‘Safe Landings’ bill
Rep. DeSaulnier’s legislation addresses runway incursions
SANFRANCISCO » Alarmed by a series of potentially deadly landingmishaps at SFO and other airports, a Bay Area congressman is pushing for stronger safeguards to protect thousands of people who depend on the latest airline and airport technologywhen they take to the skies — and when they take off and land.
East Bay Rep. Mark DeSaulnier introduced new legislation Thursday aimed at making airliner landings safer following a near- disastrous mistake at San Francisco International Airport in 2017 where a wayward Air Canada jet almost landed on a taxiway where four planes were awaiting takeoff. It was just one in a spate of near deadly runway incursions at SFO and other airports around the country.
“In recent years, runway incursions in the U. S. increased by nearly 83%. With near misses on the rise, we need to act now to ensure that those incidents do not turn into accidents and that our aviation system remains the safest in the world,” DeSaulnier said.
The Federal Aviation Administration already has made changes that affect SFO. Two air traffic controllers must be on duty in the tower during busy nighttime hours, and pilots may no longer use a visual approach to land at SFO at night when a parallel runway is closed.
A year ago the National Transportation Safety Board also recommended that airports’ ground radar systems be updated to alert air traffic controllers if a plane is lined up to a taxiway instead of a runway. The Air Canada plane dropped off the radar at SFO for the last 12 seconds of its approach.
But DeSaulnier’s legislation, known as the “Safe Landings Act,” would go further by requiring the FAA to create a system to warn pilots and air traffic controllers when an incoming plane is not aligned with the correct runway. It also would change the way pilots around the country are informed of developing safety issues.
“We have a good system, but we should be ever vigilant to make it better,” DeSaulnier said at a news conference at the airport, where he was joined by famed pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who successfully landed a U.S. Airways jet in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009, after the plane’s engines failed following a bird strike.
The bill is a response to a July, 7, 2017, near disaster where an Air Canada jet lined up for landing on an SFO taxiway instead of a runway and nearly hit four planes loaded with passengers and fuel awaiting takeoff before sharply pulling up. One of the airport’s parallel runways was closed for construction and its landing lights turned off, leading the Air Canada pilot to mistakenly believe the taxiway was Runway 28R, despite notices about the closure.
As the jet drew closer, a clearly rattled United Airlines pilot in the first plane in line asked air traffic control, “Where’s that guy going? He’s on the taxiway.” Another United pilot in the lineup flashed his landing lights in a frantic attempt to flag the Air Canada pilot of the mistake.
The Air Canada plane flew over the other planes at very low altitude — as low as 60 feet from the ground — before pulling up, according to NTSB investigators’ reports. The airport’s radar system did not pick up the wayward plane’s misalignment with the taxiway, and the air traffic controller, thinking the pilot was lined up with 28R, gave the pilot the all-clear to land after the pilot saw lights and asked the tower to reaffirm if the runway was really cleared for landing.
One expert said the near collision would have been the “greatest disaster in aviation history.”
The new bill also would require the FAA to collect data on which airlines require pilots to make landings based on instrument readings rather than flying a plane manually. It also creates a task force to study pilot fatigue, which the NTSB determined was a factor in the Air Canada landing, and other human factors that could create safety issues.
Also, the legislation requires greater transparency in aircraft maintenance and mandatory reporting of repair work to the FAA and the NTSB.
The legislation “is good news for everyone who flies,” said Sullenberger, whose heroism saved all 155 people aboard his plane after it landed in the river. He called it “a landmark bill.”
Pilots and others in aviation make “a tacit promise to all their future passengers that they will keep those passengers safe,” Sullenberger said, and that includes not just investigating accidents but preventing them. Calling flying “ultra safe,” he added that runway incursions remain perhaps the “biggest threat” to aviation safety.
The length of time cockpit voice recorders retain data is also an issue. Because the Air Canada jet’s recorder kept data for just two hours, information on the near miss was written over before it could be retained.
DeSaulnier acknowledged that pilots have concerns that longer recordings could be “misused by foreign governments.” The bill directs the Government Accountability Office to study the matter and determine how many times foreign governments have used such data for reasons other than investigating accidents.
DeSaulnier sponsored other measures stemming from the SFO near miss that were signed into law last year as part of an FAA funding bill. The new bill introduced Thursday also includes the changes about cockpit voice recordings, the safety notices circulated to pilots, and modifications made to existing air traffic controller systems to include alerts when a plane that is landing is not lined up with the runway.