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SAN FRANCISCO - There’s been another case of pilots being confused by runways at San Francisco International Airport, with the latest near-miss landing happening just before noon on Tuesday: An incoming plane came close to landing on the wrong runway.
An airport official says an Aeromexico flight coming into SFO from Mexico City was cleared to land on runway 28, the Mercury News first reported.
An FAA official says the crew even repeated back the air tower’s instructions.
But when the plane was just a mile away from the airport, air traffic controllers noticed the plane was lined up, a Virgin America jet was already on that runway.
Ultimately, a controller told the crew to go around, and the plane later landed without incident. An email to Aeromexio on Thursday was not immediately returned.
But this is not the first time there was miscommunication at SFO in recent months.
There was a close call in July when an Air Canada plane came within 100 feet of hitting two commercial jets lined up on the taxiway, because that flight almost landed on the wrong runway. Air traffic control had to stop that landing and ordered the pilot to perform a go-around.
And in October, another Air Canada flight landed on a runway it wasn’t cleared for. Federal investigators are investigating why that crew either didn’t hear or ignored air traffic control’s warnings. At the time, FAA officials said the Air Canada crew reported a radio problem.
The FAA now adds this latest incident to its list of communication blunders at SFO that it is investigating.