Tuesday, October 24, 2017

"Air Canada being probed for another runway blunder at SFO"

SFC:
Federal investigators are probing why an Air Canada flight crew did not hear repeated warnings from air traffic controllers to abort a landing at San Francisco International Airport Sunday night, less than four months after a near-miss landing at SFO by a jet from the same airline.

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An air traffic controller repeats “Canada 781 go around” at least six times, according to a public radio transmission of the incident listened to by The Chronicle.

When the commands went unanswered, the traffic controller used a flashing red light gun to alert the crew to go around, which officials said is standard protocol for an unresponsive air crew. The move also failed to get the crew’s attention.

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Constant communication with air traffic controllers is a must for pilots, Aimer said. Going “nordo,” which means having no radio communication for an extended period, should have raised alarms with the pilot, he said.