Meters from DISASTER! - Air Canada flight 759

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On the 7th of July 2017 an Air Canada Airbus A320 came within meters from landing on top of FOUR other aircraft in San Francisco international airport. The four other aircraft were standing in line on taxiway C, awaiting takeoff clearance.
How is it possible that a trained and experience flight crew in a modern airliner could make such a mistake? In todays video I will dissect the whole flight from the beginning to try and answer that question for you.
Enjoy!
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Below you will find the links to videos and sources used in this episode. Enjoy checking them out!
NTSB final report:
www.ntsb.gov/i...
Pilot Sleeping: @OPSGROUP
ops.group/blog...
Runway Maintenance: @MAG
www.adsadvance...
Light Maintenance: @MALMS
www.malmsnavai...
Pilot Fatigue: @Aviation Voice
aviationvoice....
Pilot Rubbing Eyes: @Getty Images
fthmb.tqn.com/...
RAAS System Screens: @Honeywell Aerospace
www.airlinerep...
UA 737: @Clayton Eddy
i.pinimg.com/o...

[@metsurvolugeret7077]

This video easily beats Hollywood on content, production quality.... I think I stopped breathing for 20 min ))) Thank you!

[@MentourPilot]

So happy you think so!

[@Jac-Jay]

@@Capecodham rude,the comment was in jest and was a compliment to Mentour and his team.

[@NewStreamLine]

No doubt about it. 👍

[@flagmichael]

@@NewStreamLine He has mentioned at least two of them from time to time and had to "stop down" about a week ago so one of them could get back in action.

[@NewStreamLine]

@@flagmichael Thx very much for clarification. I wish them all good luck!

[@nathanaspelund6690]

The unsung heroes in this is definitely the flight crew of that 2nd plane in the queue, it’s probably not something trained for or something they had experience with but the quick thinking of “hey maybe flipping on our lights will get this guy’s attention” probably saved a catastrophe

[@mohammedisaa9952]

Besides Canada, there were 4 planes taxing..... lets say each plane had 200 passengers and crew in them, so 4 × 200 = 800 people plus what was on the canadian flight, perhaps a thousand people who would have died as Canada cartwheeled over the 4 planes....... maybe even more waiting to go on hoiday or going home...... Did that pilot get any recognition for saving lives? or the insurance companies billions in payments over the 5 planes, or even the airlines who would have got to get new planes, even still the airport for saving them "asphalt costs"........ Nothing, but us here.....

[@ennui7778]

Definitely. Probably some of the same survival instinct that many drivers have when trying to snap another oncoming driver out of a daze by flashing high beams and honking-a last resort to avoid disaster if other evasive maneuvers are impossible

[@vn4228]

United airlines pilot is the hero too. He is the one who said "where's he going? He's on the taxiway"

[@Vaginaninja]

​@@mohammedisaa9952I love how you're just making shit up despite the facts being out there. Also, it cleared the first place easy enough

[@heyhandersen5802]

yeah, defensive thinking, turn on the lights, his action prevented the accident as it led to sudden corrective action.

[@hydrochloricacid2146]

Imagine being on that plane...As far as you're concerned, the flight crew just did a go-around (somewhat unusual, but understandable). But you find out some time later that you were mere seconds from being in what potentially could have been the worse air disaster in history.

[@amyjohnson5316]

It doesn’t bare thinking about how awful

[@Anotherfunnyword]

I always wonder if the passengers in the waiting planes knew if something was up. I imagine it would have been very loud having a full-throttle go-around being initiated right above you.

[@joot78]

The pilots sure did - imagine the hair-raising view from the third cockpit in line! Those guys probably needed a bathroom break before taxiing the rest of the way.

[@Thorinbur]

I love how NTSB investigations are the perfect example of "No Blame Culture" which so many tech companies profess to value but fail to really embrace. I dream that one day humans will learn to use simillar approach in more areas of their life.

[@iwatchwithnoads7480]

not sure which "tech companies" you refer to. I work in a power plant. All my colleagues in the electrical industry and all my friends in electronics industry experience this no-bullshit, how-can-we-prevent-this culture. Even if it's an *apparent* case of stupidity, we always question, how can we make the procedures better and have better technology and human factors to prevent this

[@Thorinbur]

@@iwatchwithnoads7480 I was refering to software development ^^ Where, "who broke it", and "I didn't touched that" are the first things uttered when a bug is spoted.

[@AntherMoo]

I wish automobile culture was like this. We've made them into better crash cans but in the USA at least nothing is done about continuously creating dangerous intersections, repeating pedestrian unsafe patterns etc. Everything is just written off as a thing that goes wrong.

[@scottstewart9154]

@@Thorinbur exactly we have incident reports that have to be completed whenever theres an issue and you don't want to be the main reason on it

[@samhhaincat2703]

@@AntherMoo The insurance company doesn't want this kind of thing and they never will. Without accidents, they're out of business. You can blame capitalism.

[@Nobilangelo]

21:31 Three cheers for the quick-thinking pilot who switched on his landing-lights when he heard the first pilot call out and saw the approaching plane. When the first plane in the queue was suddenly lit up everyone was saved, by 15 feet.

[@browntrout1156]

I think it was Philippine Airlines

[@flagmichael]

"Say... why are there bright lights turning on in the middle of the runway?"

[@KrK007]

Can you imagine being the Captain and First Officer on the Air Canada plan when suddenly the "runway" they are about to land on is illuminated and they can see the plane in front of them. There must a been a second of confusion as their minds process this "new" situation and then the sudden realization of the sheer depth of their mistake. Wow, this was close.

[@57thorns]

@@KrK007 I doubt they even had time for a second of confusion, I think they had to react on instinct more or less, and it save the day. I was surprised that they did not add that lighting up the taxi way with landing lights was not an option (at least for clear weather). And I am really happy that this new system, that has so many other benefits, was the result.

[@yggdrasil9039]

@@KrK007 Not completely. Because the FO had already raised concerns with ATCT about seeing lights on the runway. They were aware something was wrong. But Phillipines and United confirmed what ATCT did not.

[@Shoikan]

I so wish that this system of wanting to get to the 'why' of a problem/failure/issue instead of finding or appointing 'the guilty' would become the norm in more areas, such as the culture within companies. As always, awesome content, and great explanations, even for someone like me. Closest I get to a plane is when I fly in it as a passenger!

[@justayoutuber1906]

drug companies use CAPA - corrective and preventative actions

[@StarkRG]

Very rarely is it an individual's fault and, even when it is, there's almost always a systemic fault that let them be in the position to make the mistake or error of judgement. Punishing individuals inevitably leads to a CYOA culture (cover your own ass) meaning people end up being much less likely to report their own mistakes and makes managers less likely to listen to their underlings when they report potential problems.

[@NicolaW72]

Indeed, this is exactly my experience and wish.

[@ashkebora7262]

I wholly agree. That said, when an individual in a decision making role screws up, they should still be held liable. I'm sick of companies not treating people like people, but I'm also sick of individuals using companies to hide their law breaking. I don't care if you did it for the business during business hours, _you_ broke the law, go to jail personally.

[@Shoikan]

@@ashkebora7262 Agreed. But there's a difference between someone making an honest mistake, based on the information they had when they made a decision, vs someone simply making the wrong decision when by all rights they should have known better. Had the pilot in this clip been out partying hard right before, nursing a hangover, had there not been a manual procedure needed for this particular airport in this situation, had the notices about the work been on the first page in blinking neon signs, then I am sure the evaluation might have been gone quite differently. And same for a management type who is only thinking of his next big bonus so he can pay his ex-wife, his 4th house at the cote d'azur and his new bentley.

[@Madalina_Neagoe]

The second pilot talking on the ground is so relaxed! “He’s on the taxiway!” said in the tone of “This is gonna be fun.” 😅 Thankfully, it all ended well.

[@user-ix1ji]

If I got it right, it was the first pilot who said that, but the second pilot was also smart and responsive by promptly switching on his lights as a warning to the landing plane. I can't agree more with you that it was great and important to have a safe and happy ending!!!

[@Madalina_Neagoe]

@@user-ix1ji You’re right, it was the same pilot speaking. I had perceived it as a dialogue between two pilots. My bad. 😄

[@johannageisel5390]

It's a situation where my ass would go on ground ice.

[@DevinDTV]

@@user-ix1ji he could have just got on the radio and said "go around" instead of just turning on his lights lol

[@user-ix1ji]

@@DevinDTV Well, the action that serves the inteneded purpose is the best action. Like I said, the most important point here is that there was a safe & happy ending. 😊

[@saazbhatia7594]

Petition to get this man his own netflix show. THE PRODUCTION QUALITY IS BLOODY AMAZING!

[@nickl2571]

I seconf this. You've come a long way, Petter. This channel is amazing!

[@Teukka72]

That, or a set of hand picked pilots like him.

[@diegodossantos4384]

Nice show but never replies... Even when he ask a question ...

[@StephenPaschall]

@@diegodossantos4384 Patently untrue.

[@Josie.A.F]

Where do I sign?

[@Parr4]

I had never seen that footage from the tower! What a frightening close call! Thanks for your analysis!

[@Shadowfax-1980]

Yes! I was familiar with the event but have never seen this footage before. It was a lot closer then I had thought.

[@scottnigh5056]

Alerts should be on the first page, basically anything that is not normal. start with alerts for departure to inflight updates, such as weather alerts, then destination alert updates. Then it can go into SOP of the flight briefing. just my opinion.

[@vbscript2]

Pretty much all of the NOTAMs are for things that are not normal; that's why we have NOTAMs. But when you're flying across almost the entire width of the continent from Toronto to San Francisco, that's quite a lot of stuff, which is how you end up with the 27-page document. It literally mentions every single tower whose aircraft hazard warning lights aren't working, every navigational aid that's out-of-service, every closed runway, every large crane set up nearby, planned skydiving operations, planned fireworks shows, etc. It can be really quite a lot of stuff, even for relatively short flights. Basically, anything that's different from what's on the charts or chart supplements will be documented in a NOTAM, whether it's something that lasts for a short time or for months or years. But I completely agree that something like "one of the runways at your planned destination airport will be closed" is much more important than the lights being out on a tower you're going to be clearing by a mile or more vertically and should be highlighted. That being said, the ATIS specifically mentioned, not only that 28L was closed, but also that it was unlit. Unfortunately, that still didn't seem to fully register with the crew, likely due to the fact that it was just before 3am in their local time. I'd be curious to know how the standby scheduling works there. Are they on standby for the whole day or are they on standby for particular hours? I would certainly hope that it's the latter so that they can plan their sleep schedule for the day around still being awake at 3 am. I know it's a set number of hours that you can work in a normal duty period after which the crew times out and can't operate the flight, but I'm curious whether standby works in the same way or not. If it doesn't, it certainly should.

[@StarkRG]

They should make it colour coded based on the severity and perhaps in an order customized to which ones are going to be most impactful for individual flights. So the first couple of pages would highlight the notices regarding the critical portions of the flight (takeoff and landing), and the particularly important ones, like runway closures, would stand out from the others.

[@iainathairydog]

@@StarkRG The trouble with colour coding is that the priorities of the person writing may not be the priorities of the person reading. It's human nature to look at the most important bits of we are pressed for time. Perhaps adding some more structure to the assembly of notams would be better that trying to add colour coding: separate the notams related to the departure, the cruise and the destination into three sections?

[@my2cents366]

@@vbscript2 NOTAM in current format is passing the liability on pilots. It need a complete overhaul.

[@lisaa8795]

Good teamwork by all - first plane UAL more or less yelling then the second plane turned on lights to illuminate the runway. Saved a lot of lives.

[@Dowlphin]

I found it odd that the first plane had no headlights on, though. The second seemed to eventually go from dim to bright and the third plane had brighter all the time. It took the leading plane quite a while considering the approach was from straight ahead, and they could have flashed their headlights a couple times.

[@Slash1066]

I always find it amusing that most of these incidents are caused by the most mundane things, not something breaking or exploding, a pilot mistaking a taxi way for a runway, or a mis heard local pressure reading putting the pilot too low, or a chair reclining too suddenly! The world of aviation is fascinating

[@nathanpierce7681]

"or a chair reclining too suddenly!" which one is this, it sounds interesting

[@torgejh9189]

@@nathanpierce7681 If I'm not mistaken, it was Air India Express 611. The captain's backrest collapsed shortly before reaching VR.

[@nathanpierce7681]

@@torgejh9189 thanks!

[@torgejh9189]

@@nathanpierce7681 You're welcome ;D

[@wecsam]

I work in electronic health systems and frequently work on software to help catch mistakes. I really appreciate you highlighting how technology is used to make us safer.

[@johnc2438]

I'm sure that the pilots' "circadian lows" switched to extreme "adrenaline highs" instantly, along with their sudden need for fresh underwear. 😱

[@nabirasch5169]

Yep. CL is one of those perfect excuses--something like PTSD. Babysitting all those dials must be sleep inducive. Need to work out a few more wake-up alarms.

[@Timeward76]

As someone who's, ashamedly, had those moments of microsleep while driving before, nothing wakes you up quite like being scared. And nothing scares you more than suddenly realizing you were close to fucking shit up.

[@stevemarethyu3003]

I watched that video of the plane coming in several times, but without the highlighting of where the other planes were. It was scary enough when I didn't see the first two planes lined up, but now... holy crap that was so close!

[@AEMoreira81]

If he didn't pull up in time, he would have plowed into the Australia-bound B789 and the Mexico-bound B739 behind it.

[@NicolaW72]

@@AEMoreira81 Indeed.

[@amandagish5976]

This is the best explanation I've ever heard. I have nothing to do with aviation and even I figured out the story. Petter, you are great at this.

[@spiros7376]

The same situation happened many times before back at 90 at old Athens Airport LGAT witch had the runway parallel with an avenue. Many airlines at nights tried to land their airplane in the new illumination Avenue., specially the non familiar with the airport.

[@miridium121]

Heard the ATC for this one. Never realised just HOW close it was to the highest point of the aircraft under it. Quick thinking of the plane that put on the landing lights!

[@donaldball9265]

The ATC was alone in the Tower, the other ATC was on a break. I'd say he was crapping in his pants when he issued the go-around.

[@sapanavarani9747]

The first aircraft in the queue facing the landing aircraft was in fact perpendicular at the holding point for departure. Hence the first aircraft to impact directly was the one which started the lights when they saw the 320 ramming them at 140 knots. My compliments to Capt Petter and his entire team for making this wonderfully researched and wel presented content.

[@Alex-kf7tm]

Thank you for such a wonderful documentary

[@MentourPilot]

Glad you liked it!

[@MuEnYang]

Love the way you and NTSB focus on the system loophole instead of the human mistakes. My first impression was pilots sounds so so so tired when I first heard the ATC recording on another KZbin channel. Secondly, I thought the tower control should have noticed something going out wrong when pilots raised concerns about "lights on runway". If not watched this video, I would have continued to believe pilots and tower are to blame for this instance.

[@kavinskysmith4094]

Well I wouldnt write off the tower, as I think anyone else would have been what do you mean what lights, like what is your heading and you GPS please. not look up from a magazine and go uh hu there, your fine, I mean if it wasnt for that pilot going what in tarnation is this instead of saying what he should of, AIRCRAFT LANDING ON FULL TAXI WAY AIRCRAFT LANDING ON FULL TAXI WAY! and the real savorir of the day, the guy who turned on his landing lights they woudlnt have even F'ing noticed and it would have been either just a giantic fireball or one hell of a head on collision with the third jet or so.

[@Stant123]

You guys shouldn't be blaming tower at all here. You're taking your stance based off of you already knowing the situation the plane is in and claiming that tower could have done more, but you're failing to understand that even though Air Canada communicates they see traffic confirm we're clear, Tower is looking at the runway and confirming that it is indeed clear and communicating that back. What the tower does NOT have, is the line of sight down the runway or taxiway in this case that the pilots DO have. The tower is off to the side, they cannot judge the line up of the approach. It's just not physically possible for them to do so. So to accuse them of not having your awareness well after the fact, or even the same awareness of the pilots flying, or even the same awareness of the pilots sitting on the taxiway during this is absolutely crazy. Do realize that the United pilot who finally chimes in has been staring at this plane making his approach the whole time, literally staring straight in the face at them and does not determine there's a problem until it's almost too late. Same with the pilot in the second plane, same with the pilot in the third plane. All of the pilots have line of sight, tower does not. When pilots confirm they have an airport in sight, the tower's responsibility switches from controlling the approach to monitoring. They cannot be on the radio asking for headings and GPS coordinates, nor should the pilots be answering those questions for tower. Those are distractions from landing safely. I imagine the tower is NOT sitting there looking at a magazine and is instead frantically scanning the runway looking to see if any of the construction vehicles have wandered over too far and are now on the wrong runway or anything else that might be on the runway that these guys are seeing which would be a disaster if a plane landing ran over them and crashed. They have no reason to believe Air Canada is lined up wrong. The pilots/first officers all of whom have line of sight, any of 8 of them out there, could have figured it out sooner, but didn't. It's an impossibility for tower to figure it out and do more than what they did.

[@3dmaster205]

@@kavinskysmith4094 Well, it isn't just the tower, but also the NTSB; I've been wondering here why it wasn't standard practice from the first first runway maintenance closure to verbally warn/remind an aircraft that's going to land by the air traffic controller of the closed runway, "Reminder, closed runway, only one of the parallel runways is lit." And it apparently still isn't the practice as I didn't see this recommendation in the report. Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't think of a way that could cause issues, rather than solve ones like this.

[@AEMoreira81]

This airport design is pretty bad as well. A recommendation out of this was to always use ILS into SFO.

[@idratherbetrikin4179]

Wasn't there only ONE ATC employee at this instance? The second was on a restroom (etc) break. I believe they said a minimum of TWO must be there at all times after that.

[@kaini3275]

That second aircraft in line that flipped on his lights is the hero of this, wow. very quick thinking and likely averted disaster.

[@loritalbot3063]

A frightening thing happened to me in San Fran. in the eighties. We were taking off when another plane was coming in. Our nose just left the ground when it suddenly came slamming back down and another plane just skimmed over top of us. Terrifying !

[@srinitaaigaura]

Was it ever reported?

[@shibasurfing]

I was in the Bay Area when this happened so I'm fairly familiar with the incident. The window of circadian low was a new concept for me and the top quality visualizations really take it to the next level!

[@jerseyshoredroneservices225]

I've felt this several times when driving overnight. I never knew what it was or why I would start to wake up around 5:00 a.m. even though I hadn't gotten any rest. The worst part of driving overnight is just like he said, between 2am and sunrise

[@PERKINS4107]

Just wanted to say thank you for this and all your videos! I'm not a pilot, just an aviation enthusiast and love watching, and re watching your posts. Keep up the great work👍😃

[@OlaRune]

I would love it if you made a short video about airport layout. What runways, aprons, ramps, gates etc are. How are runways, taxiways, exits generally named? What different lighting is there etc. Not that this is very hard to research yourself, but your videos are so interesting, so I guess something like that would be really nice to watch for newbies like myself.

[@asquare9316]

thank you for not using the word "tarmac", always drives me crazy

[@dennywong2408]

Excellent video. When I heard the ATC recordings in another video its easy to accuse the pilots being idiots. But having you explaining the whole situation from a pilot's perspective as well as CCTV clips (e.g. the second plane in queue turning on his landing lights) added a whole different level of understanding of what happened. At the end of the day we are all human.

[@montebont]

It's almost never a single thing - the industry want to avoid "Single Points Of Failure" or SPOF as much as it can. The thing is you can't possibly predict EVERYTHING that COULD go wrong. Shit happens when all checks and backups fail. That's why investigations like those from the NTSB are so important: they add to the things that could go wrong because they DID go wrong.

[@erich930]

YIKES!!!! I heard the ATC recording from this incident, but I had no idea the Air Canada had come so close to hitting that other aircraft! It's great to know that there's already a new warning system out there to prevent this from happening again.

[@DanB95]

Kind of reminds me of a time about a decade ago, my flight was on a perfectly clear day and we were just about to land when all of a sudden we went from reverse thrust to full forward thrust and I think that was the steepest climb I've ever experienced. We circled for twenty minutes then when we landed I found out we nearly struck another much larger plane that was stopped on the runway. I wish I could remember more of the flight details because I'm sure there's a near-miss report out there somewhere lol The same day, the second plane I was going to board last minute was taken out of service because it had lost hydraulics entirely. It was that day I realized I am cursed

[@TheStefanoMA]

Or, you're extremely lucky. Glass half full!

[@flightsimdeskuk]

I am confused why reverse thrust would be on when about to land. You don't reverse until after landing?

[@dougwood3129]

Reminds me of my close call. Was taking a plane from. Chicago to Albuquerque. While in waiting area A guy sitting next to me said I could go across the waiting area and get my flight changed to a Flight going to LA. But had a secret or not listed stop in Albuquerque. That flight was the DC10 that crashed that day from a engine coming off. I noticed in me how I just accept things later in life. Where the waitress sets the plate down. I just leave it. I do hardly anything to change fate. Not much about aviation but about life.

[@elliot8264]

I actually feel sorry for the captain, honest mistake and he’ll feel terrible about doing it. Great video and information as always 👍🏻

[@RK-252]

Honestly I'd feel more sorry for him if he hadn't tried to cover it up by overwriting the cockpit voice recorder data.

[@amillionemptybranches9553]

@@RK-252 im fairly sure it automatically rewrites with the next flight and bc this wasnt an full accident they didnt stop the plane from flying its next flight. I think theyve changed that policy tho

[@RK-252]

@@amillionemptybranches9553 yes and no. he deliberately waited until the following evening to report the incident to his company dispatch, which ensured the CVR data was overwritten by the morning and afternoon flights. if he had reported promptly, the CVR would have been pulled from the aircraft before it was overwritten by subsequent flights. for obvious reasons, he did not want this to happen.

[@WJS774]

@@RK-252 What _exactly_ do you think was in the CVR that he would want to 'cover up'? Because he sure as hell wasn't covering up that the incident happened.

[@amillionemptybranches9553]

@@RK-252 interesting. I wasn’t aware that it was deliberate. I was under the impression it was more like nobody was quite sure what to do and the policy was unclear. Ill have to look into it.

[@barbaralane9825]

Another excellent presentation. Very well done and valuable analysis.

[@MentourPilot]

Glad you liked it!

[@jeffrobinson8990]

I like your videos and I don't even fly

[@joesanchez4895]

Your presentation of this incident is incredible, I appreciated how in depth you went with your analysis of this unfortunate situation. Fortunately no lives were lost , I do feel for the flight crew who made a critical error, we are only human.

[@2615Prasad]

Captain of the second aircraft on the ground saying "where is this guy going" was the trigger. Good he said that

[@yggdrasil9039]

@@2615Prasad he saved the day. SF ATCT's command to goaround came 4 seconds after AC759 themselves started to goaround. By the time the ATCT controller said 'goaround' there would already be at least 3 exploding, mangled airplanes on the taxiway

[@vetledeilkas538]

In most ATC surveillance systems, they have a module/function that is called APM (Approach Path Monitor), or sometimes AFDAS (Approach Funnel Deviation Alert System). In the system I deliver in my work, it is called AFDAS, and it is a separate window representing where the landing aircraft is on the glide slope and on the localiser. If the deviation is more than a configured amount (either far too right or left on the localiser, or to low/high on the glide slope, we generate the corresponding alert (GP_HIGH, GP_LOW, LOC_RIGHT, LOC_LEFT, etc), with red blinking colour on the target label, with sound. These functions would detect something like this incident easily, so there are multiple systems in place, both in the aircraft themselves like explained in the video, but also in ATC systems.

[@realulli]

"Mistakes happen. We're all human. Lets try to make sure this kind of mistake will not be repeated by the next guy!"

[@matthewgroff433]

or the next pilot or the next pilot after him/her, etc.. Let's learn so this mistake NEVER EVER happens again!!

[@XouZ88]

I know it kind of seems bad that such experienced crew can make simple mistakes like this, but I think we learn more about these kind on incident's because it makes it so much clear that this can happen to everyone, no matter how experienced you are. In the end we are only humans, this is also why we use checklist's, we can't trust ourselves, always need to keep asking ourselves if we are in right. But with fatigue we are so distracted that we stop asking those questions. So more and more systems are implemented to make the flight computer ask those questions for us, but really we should also focus on keeping the pilots well rested.

[@neotexh6470]

Yes, especially that I read the pilot done 2 long haul flight and doing this flight as well. The pilot must been very tired

[@jamesblunt006]

The real hero is the pilot or first officer of the second plane lining up, who turned on his landing lights.

[@miokujou]

I've experienced Circadian Low before too while I was driving home at 1am. At that time I've been on the road for almost 24 hours and being on an expressway made me more drowsy. Fortunately I was able to get home safely but I don't remember majority of the drive on the expressway. I do remember suddenly feeling awake when I exited and was on more familiar roads. I think the reason why I didn't get into an accident and don't remember majority of the drive was because my body went into autopilot, I was driving purely on instinct.

[@MentourPilot]

Correct. That’s very dangerous

[@miokujou]

@@MentourPilot agreed. That was a scary experience. I won't do that again.

[@agnia85]

Oh my god, seconds from disaster. It would probably be even more deadly than that Tenerife airport crash.

[@lauraalyce6689]

I was telling my Dad about your videos, because he used to fly a lot for business, like once a month for years. I was telling him about a couple of near miss ones and he told me "oh yeah, one time we were coming back into Heathrow from Detroit (1991ish), we were coming into land, we were level with the airport terminal buildings, then suddenly we were pulling up really sharply. (The sharpest he'd ever experienced, he later clarified) Once we were up and stable, the pilot says over the tanoy "Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm sorry for the last minute change of plan. There was another plane on the runway and I didn't think you'd like me to land on it". Made me think of this video and how much more serious that incident might have been than my Dad realised.

[@bulk04]

Such a clear and concise explanation of this incident. Thanks for your analysis. It is of considerable interest to me as my daughter is an FO on Air Canada's A220-300.

[@matthewellisor5835]

Not gross negligence but I bet his friends remind him often: "Don't pull a Ford."

[@yggdrasil9039]

What does that mean, to pull a Ford?

[@blainevideos]

@@yggdrasil9039 Harrison Ford was piloting his personal plane and landed on the taxi way (rather than runway 20L). He passed about 100 feet in front of a taxiing Boeing.

[@noni5961]

I really like your channel. Very professional. No dramatics. Great visuals. Very informative. Grades above most TV programs of this nature. 👏👏👏👏👏

[@justsnappy]

I was working in SFO UA ops that night. We heard the buzz of the incident as we monitored the ground and tower frequencies because we were always concerned about the OFF time for crew duty. We didn’t realize until days later how close to disaster things came. FYI: UA 1 was the flight to Singapore and UA 863 was the Sydney flight.

[@EdRandall66]

Something similar occurred at LHR in 1989, a 747 nearly landed on the A4. It cleared a hotel by about 12 feet as it went around.

[@TaylorAmes]

I'm glad the NTSB didn't trash the pilots with this report. Once I heard one of the runways was closed for maintenance, I immediately thought of multiple scenarios where I could see a taxiway being mistaken for a runway. And like everybody else has said in the comments, nice work of the 2nd plane pilots for thinking to flick on the landing lights. I don't know if the rules have been officially changed since this incident, but when my local airport closed a runway for maintenance, they had a large X covered in lights at both ends of the runway that could be easily seen day or night.

[@williammalouhos4142]

I REALY ENJOY THE WAY YOU PRESENT YOUR VIDS

[@Aikisbest]

Holy smokes that was close :o It makes me really happy to see they avoided disaster though! Like genuinely!

[@8O0I0O8]

This incident has recently been covered by "Black Box Down" an aviation podcast about plane crashes and other incidents. They are great to listen to! :) Great video as always!

[@EricMBlog]

This incident in particular has amazed me. So close to a HUGE disaster.

[@Paramoteurpilot]

Truly excellent content on your videos. Perhaps something as simple as an illuminated red cross at the end of all taxiways to indicate 'do not land here'. A temporary cross on a closed runway is such a good simple idea.

[@jimanderson2518]

These investigations are truly the most thorough evaluation. I just wished that other industries would adopt these philosophies. To many finger pointing with zero solutions or resolutions . Its why Democracy is collapsing around us .......no solution or resolutions

[@nkl7345]

Politics is a show

[@Cjmm007]

The best YT pilot is back

[@MentourPilot]

Aww thank you 💕💕

[@MentourPilot]

@@Capecodham KZbin

[@cicisunGemini]

i think this is one of the best youtube Vid i have watched given how the logic flows

[@OTRTrader]

Welcome back! KZbin: We're all very much awake, and alive & well here for purposes of the algorithms!

[@MentourPilot]

Hahaha! 😂

[@donaldstanfield8862]

We WOKE after this mishap fo sho!!

[@OTRTrader]

@@donaldstanfield8862 LOL noone can say we ain't fo sho!

[@kayinoue2497]

So many have accurately commented on the amazing dedication to safety in the industry, so instead, I'm going to comment on how stunned and amused I am by the comms. "Where is this guy going?" (other pilot, nonchalantly staring down death) "...He's on the taxiway." That guy is audibly shrugging.

[@WeirdSeagul]

I just love these videos. not a crash or public event and you have collaborated so much detail and formulated a very informative video

[@ytzpilot]

This was the best analysis I have seen on this incident. Everyone else wants to throw those pilots under the bus

[@ItzOzyyy]

Yeay let's gooo! Finally an upload 😄

[@MentourPilot]

Yes, sorry for the delay.

[@tonyradle8747]

@@MentourPilot Don't be sorry! You make these videos free for all of us to see you are doing a great service

[@chrzoc]

As always, Petter gives a cogent, consise and unbiased analysis of the event at hand. Good job as always. I definitely agree, that burying important NOTAMs amongst 100 others on page 24 of a 30 page OFP is not ideal, as well as the confirmation bias the captain experienced due to the approach picture he was seeing… THAT BEING SAID… I’ve flown into KSFO many times, both on the ILS and the visual, and I still find it quite unusual that you could miss the ALSF-II’s, REIL’s, TDZL centerline lighting, PAPI’s, et al that should be painting your approach picture on short final… but then again I’ve also never landed there with a closure on one of the parallels and active work on the closed runway…

[@aprilt7080]

Interesting one of the suggestion is to have a ground controller at all times… But, during the incident, because all the pilots are on the same frequency, they can all hear each other, as well as the tower controller. That probably saved the time delay of the ground controller relaying what the pilots on taxiway was saying to the tower controller who then have to past on to the landing pilot!!! I don’t know having a ground controller would add anything in this incident.

[@amardave84]

I was gonna say do they have a horn in the airplane? Because if I'm sitting on the taxiway about to be landed on by a big jet, I would be honking like crazy.

[@yggdrasil9039]

lol

[@ingvarbejvel259]

I think it’s absolutely crucial to do away with block letters in messages! It’s a misunderstanding that block letters are more easily discerned, which they are NOT!

[@HernandezAlaska]

God I've been waiting for THIS specific incident to be done by you. You're outdoing yourself with these vids man!

[@mijmijrm]

if you can mistake an unlit landing strip for not-a-landing strip, then (if you'r expecting to see 2 landing strips) you're likely to see a lit not-a-landing strip as a landing strip. Perhaps the unusable landing strip should be lit red (or something) to suggest do-not-use rather than no lights = does-not-exist.

[@HitechProductions]

It seems to me that ATC should ALWAYS inform pilots on approach when any runway at the airport is closed, especially when they are on a visual approach. It seems obvious to me that this is very important information, but I'm not a pilot so... GREAT in-depth video. :^)

[@mdhazeldine]

It's amazing that they thought it was normal to have a runway at a major airport with no approach lights, no PAPI lights and blue and dim edge lights, and planes crossing it. So many red flags there! I've watched a few cockpit landing videos on 28R at night and with both runways active, it's bloody obvious. I can only guess that it was a combination of multiple factors playing tricks on their brains. So weird.

[@ronaldlogan3525]

Perhaps polarized runway lights. On approach runway the approaching aircraft would see green on the runway he is to land on, red on the runway he is not to land on. runway lights each have two lights that are aimed at either direction of the runway and can be either red or green. Air traffic control automatically switches the runway lights according to the landing or take off patterns for each aircraft. But of course, even with this extreme measures, if all airports do not comply, pilots may become dependent on this system and become confused on airports that do not have it.

[@Heowa]

"Where is this guy going?" - The calmness with which that pilot said that, incredible...

[@MeriaDuck]

Almost fatalistic.

[@HauntedXXXPancake]

The only thing incredible about that was, that the Pilot actually pressed the mic-button to broadcast such a completely useless comment.

[@PaulTomblin]

Shouldn’t there be light up ‘X’ at the threshold of the closed runways? That’s what they do at my local airport KROC when a runway is closed.

[@konkurosaki6967]

i only watched helios 522 yetserday. and just cought myself getting shivers at 7:07 when he said the pilots missed something. glad i saw the ending before.

[@SpineGevity]

Kind of amazing this hasn't happened before. Maintenance work and closure of a runway is a normal part of operations. However, it's interesting that nobody realized the construction lights might be confused for lights running along the edge of a left side runway. So glad they dodged this bullet.

[@alfredomarquez9777]

It HAS HAPPENED BEFORE!: Western Airlines Flight 2605, nicknamed the "Night Owl", was an international scheduled passenger flight from Los Angeles California, to Mexico City on October 31, 1979, at 5:42 a.m. CST, the aircraft used for the flight, a DC-10, crashed at Mexico City International in fog, after landing on a runway closed for maintenance. Of the 89 people on board, 72 were killed in the crash; and one person on the ground, a maintenance worker, also died when the plane struck his vehicle. The captain flying descended into the closed runway... The fact remains: those flights were nicknamed "Night Owl" flights. You can be certain that the hour of the day did played a large part at that accident.

[@pascualespinoza5784]

Never have I loved a video so fast that I subscribe in the middle of it. Very good work 👍

[@tiagoalen]

This video was completely amazing. Brace for impact!

[@MentourPilot]

Glad you found it interesting. Please share it with your friends on socials, it really helps the channel.

[@carmcarm8230]

Love your videos

[@maxmillion7007]

what might have helped visually for viewers is a shot of the runways and taxi ways from the air canada POV. It was a much shallower angle, therefore the blue lights of the taxiway and the lights on the planes waiting would have blended together more. and also the planes on the ground would have blocked most of the view of the green centre line. Another thing is the tendency to use higher kelvin colour for "white" lights these days. To some people (including me) 6000+ kelvin LED lights have a distinct blue tinge to them .

[@JM-ig4ed]

I've been binge watching all your vids... So well done and informative. Have you yourself ever had a close call or potential crash situation?

[@erikmolnar6585]

If Hollywood ever needs a consultant, this is their man for sure! Time to bring back the Airport movies!!!

[@MrSpruce]

I heard the ATC for this several years ago, it's very nice to get more information about it.

[@sqwk2559]

The crew where at full fault. No excuses!

[@my2cents366]

In aviation, you don't blame people and you don't make excuses. Mistakes happen and you try to learn from them.

[@sqwk2559]

@@my2cents366 - you deliberately took what I said out of context. I’m in a pilot and you don’t have a clue what you are talking about.

[@my2cents366]

@@sqwk2559 they were not trying to crash, they asked ATC if there is something on the runway so they were looking out and were makeing sure that runway is clear. So why did they line up with the taxi way.

[@AccidentallyOnPurpose]

Those pilots on the ground sound so calm, if I were them I would be panicking, a collision would likely be fatal.

[@jiewang7985]

Thank you! All smart the second queuing pilot!

[@iroor]

bruh, whenever he says "I hope I've earned an subscription from you" I internally go. You have done way more than just earn. Thank you for the great content, really insightful

[@reznovvazileski3193]

That's some genius quick response from the 2nd aircraft on the taxiway there as well to illuminate the aircraft in front of him as to eliminate any final chances that the pilot would still miss that this is a very dangerous place to land. Four planes worth of people in 1 crash that would have been an absolute catastrophe.

[@whtelephant1]

Why not line the taxiway with red lights for a visual cue since the color red usually means stop?

[@Volar777]

I love how you walk us through how these potential disasters happen and what details contributed to the entire sequence of events including actual video pointing to the placement of the aircraft on the taxiway and how close Air Canada 759 came to cued traffic. The solutions unfortunately come after accidents rather than preventing them but now it is much safer i believe because of common sense action and recommendations.

[@makecba]

Asiana 214 next, pleeeeeeeease

[@dennakray]

Love this video. So easy to blame the pilots on the Air Canada flight (as I did before watching this) but this gives an in-depth insight in the human factors of this incident.

[@98-24]

I was glued to that 1, Great video!!!

[@paulreichers847]

Absolutely EXCELLENT video of a critically important incident for aviation that we would NEVER hear about on the 6 o'clock news because there was no mass death and destruction which is what the mainstream media thrives upon.

[@stuartbogdanow6345]

GREAT warnings in this video!

[@fyoung9]

As an Obstetrician i know that circadian low well, I just never really had a name for it! Absolutely fantastic video, I was riveted. Thank you!

[@videograffy]

I'm sorry but IMHO this incident sits on the borderline of honest mistake and negligence. Having said that I am a borderline armchair pilot with 40 hours. I have not flown at night but a runway is a runway is a runway. Your graphics made it totally clear. Im a little more scared these days flying with airlines due to a lot of factors including pilot fatigue and also the overwhelming amount of automation in cockpits. Would be good to know how much sleep a pilot has had before embarking his airplane. I pick my Airlines and time of flight carefully when i travel. You sir have a great channel, happy to fly with YOU anyday.

[@steve6375]

So there are two identical runways and one of them is out of service and they are using ILS. Why can't runways be individually identified using lights - e.g. '28R' in lights at intervals down the runway? Surely it is asking for trouble if two adjacent runways look identical, one of them is dark and the pilot needs to land on the right-hand one? Also, surely the control tower should have told every single aircraft 'be advised runway 28L is closed' on first contact. The NTSB solution was to add lights to the out-of-service runway to indicate it was present but not in service - but what if it was not in service due to an electrical issue and the lights were not working on that runway? Why not just clearly 'label' each runway - its not as if we don't have light bulbs?

[@markweintraut7420]

Yes Runway 32 at Indianapolis has a "GREAT BIG RED X" that I could see from the high Dallas style ramp some mornings on my way to work., I'm sure very effective! Great Video Petter!

[@michaellange6303]

You indicate that the Crew Resource Management was not functioning properly as the F/O did not speak-up when he felt not comfortable with the actions of the captain. Was there any recommendation towards Air Canada to review their CRM training??

[@voyaristika5673]

I got the chills right at go around. Got big bad chills. I NEVER get chills. And I'm assuming that passengers had no idea (for the best).

[@yurikharitonov2836]

Brilliant analysis! Greets from ATC!

[@phyrexd4365]

Saw the VASaviation ATC vid on this. Just that was very scary. Had no idea they got so close to actually hitting the planes on the ground though until I saw this. It would have been an absolute disaster, there were three more aircraft lined up right behind.

[@ditzygypsy]

I have really bad insomnia. That circadian low period is usually my most productive time. Not REALLY productive anymore, because I’m often up for two days and nights every few days, but if I’m going to decide to bake a cake, it’ll be around 3 am. 😂

[@robertcaminante]

Clear and very illustrative explanation

[@georgewyatt2924]

I have flown that route several times on Air Canada and it's not unusual for the evening flights to depart late so they often land early in the am, Toronto time. I have not read the report. The RAAS appears to be a good system that goes beyond the problem presented. Perhaps another option would be to have the strobe lights reversed on the approach end of the inactive runway so it's clear there are two runways, but don't land on the one with the strobe lights reversed. Or the strobes could be turned red.

[@carmineriganti2333]

The second ground pilot was smart and quick to turn on lights and avoided a disaster.

[@haiwatigere6202]

Phillipines airlines a340

[@noeldown1952]

@@haiwatigere6202 Used to working with less than proficient pilots around him, so good situational awareness.

[@haiwatigere6202]

@@noeldown1952 somehow I feel you have have turned this around.. how about he was just a great pilot huh. Is that too difficult?

[@NewStreamLine]

I wouldn't not like to be the pilot on the third plane on the taxiway.

[@eriktruchinskas3747]

@@haiwatigere6202 I take it you're Filipino? What he is saying is that in third world countries they are more lax when it comes to allowing airlines with less than stellar records who may have less than great pilots, it has nothing to do with the country itself.