Canadian investigators indicate that an Air Canada Airbus A320 overflew a line of waiting aircraft at around 100ft during a go-around, after its crew apparently erroneously aligned with a taxiway during final approach.
Transportation Safety Board of Canada says four aircraft were positioned on San Francisco's taxiway C – which runs parallel to the runway 28R – during the incident.
The A320 (C-FKCK) had overflown the taxiway for some 0.25nm before a tower controller instructed the aircraft to conduct the go-around.
As it executed the missed approach, says the board, the aircraft overflew the first two aircraft by 100ft, a third by 200ft and the fourth by 300ft.
It adds that the closest lateral proximity was 29ft between the A320 and one of the four aircraft on the ground.
The investigators give the time of the incident as 23:56 on 7 July.
Although the approach was conducted in darkness, San Francisco airport's meteorological data at the time shows good visibility and no adverse weather conditions.
Air Canada flight AC759 had been arriving at San Francisco following a service from Toronto.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
