In 2017, Air Canada Flight 759 came terrifyingly close to causing one of the worst aviation disasters ever at San Francisco International Airport. The plane was supposed to land on a clear runway but instead started descending onto a taxiway where four fully loaded planes were waiting to take off. The pilots mistook the taxiway for the runway in the dark, coming within 14 feet of hitting another plane. A quick-thinking air traffic controller yelled for the Air Canada pilots to abort their landing at the last second. The plane pulled up just in time, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic pile-up that could’ve affected hundreds of lives. Experts later said it was sheer luck and sharp reactions that prevented tragedy that night. Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00This could've been one of the biggest disasters in aviation history.
00:04It was close to midnight at San Francisco International Airport when Air Canada Flight
00:09759 approached for landing.
00:12The pilots were almost done for that day and thought they'd land as usual, but they were
00:17unaware that the airport looked different that night.
00:21Runway 28R was open, while Runway 28L, usually parallel, was closed for maintenance, with
00:27its lights turned off.
00:29Despite having landed here before, the pilots made a critical error, expecting to see two
00:34parallel runways.
00:36They mistook the center runway for the darkened 28L and assumed the taxiway on the right was
00:4228R.
00:43What the crew didn't realize was that the taxiway wasn't empty.
00:48Four planes were lined up there, waiting for takeoff, with more than a thousand passengers
00:52in total.
00:54And their plane was headed straight toward them.
00:57There was a notice to airmen which listed important details for flights, including this
01:01critical information.
01:03But these notices are long and dense, often stretching several pages, and the closure
01:08detail had been missed by the Air Canada crew.
01:11That night, the pilots were conducting a visual approach, relying on what they could see to
01:16align with the runway.
01:18This is normal in good weather, but is much harder at night.
01:22The crew had flown from Toronto and were tired after a long day.
01:26Their internal clocks were already past 3 a.m.
01:29And Canadian rules regarding pilot rest were less strict than those in the U.S.
01:34The captain had been working for nearly 19 hours without proper rest.
01:39As the plane got closer to danger, no one in the cockpit noticed they were on the wrong
01:44path.
01:45Planes approaching San Francisco often come in at a slight angle to reduce noise over
01:50the bay.
01:51It's normal for them to appear slightly off to air traffic controllers.
01:56This added to the confusion, and the Air Canada crew kept heading toward the taxiway.
02:01When the pilots finally realized that something was off, they radioed the control tower to
02:06confirm their landing clearance.
02:08The controller, who was managing both air traffic and ground operations due to the late
02:13hour, took several seconds to respond.
02:16He cleared them to land, unaware that the plane was lined up for the wrong path.
02:21Meanwhile, the crew of one of the planes on the runway quickly radioed the tower, alerting
02:26them to the imminent danger.
02:28The tower immediately instructed the Air Canada crew to stop and go around for another attempt.
02:34The Air Canada pilots pulled up just in time, missing the parked planes by just a couple
02:39feet.
02:40The pilots, still shaken from the near-miss, saved hundreds of lives.
02:46After the incident, a full investigation was conducted.
02:49Now there are new safety measures.
02:52But there are still concerns about whether the lessons learned are enough.
02:56Recent years have seen an alarming rise in such awful close calls.
03:01Qantas Flight 32, a scheduled flight from London to Sydney via Singapore, encountered
03:07a critical emergency on November 4, 2010.
03:11Just minutes after taking off from Singapore's Shangi Airport, as an Airbus A380 was flying
03:16over the Riau Islands in Indonesia.
03:19It encountered a serious problem.
03:21One of its four engines underwent an uncontained failure.
03:25For the next two hours, the crew faced a tense and difficult situation as they tried to figure
03:30out how badly the plane was damaged.
03:33The accident happened at 10.01 a.m. Singapore time.
03:37When the engine went off, pieces of it flew into the wing, damaging important systems.
03:43The fuel system was hit, causing leaks and even starting a fire in one of the fuel tanks.
03:48It also took out one of the plane's hydraulic systems, which help control things like the
03:53flaps and landing gear.
03:55It disabled the anti-lock brakes, which are crucial for safe landings.
03:59Two of the other engines started to lose power as well, and the flaps, which help control
04:03the plane's descent and speed, were damaged.
04:06Despite the harm to the aircraft, the crew realized it was still controllable.
04:11They decided to circle near Singapore for about 50 minutes while they carefully checked
04:16the condition of the aircraft.
04:18The first officer and the supervising captain then used a special landing calculator to
04:23see if they could land safely at Changi, even though the plane was 50 tons heavier than
04:28its maximum landing weight.
04:30At first, the system couldn't give them a landing distance.
04:34But after adjusting for the fact that the runway was dry, it showed they could land
04:39with only 328 feet of runway left to spare.
04:43At 11.45 a.m., the plane landed safely at Changi Airport.
04:48But because it was going about 40 miles per hour faster than usual, four of its tires
04:53blew out when it touched down.
04:56After landing, the crew ran into another problem – they couldn't shut off the number one
05:01engine.
05:02Emergency crews had to step in and put out the engine themselves.
05:06The crew had to decide whether to evacuate the plane right away because fuel was leaking
05:11near the overheated brakes, which could've caused a fire.
05:15Captain David Evans later explained that, despite the risk, it was actually safer to
05:19keep everyone on board until things settled down.
05:23The cabin crew stayed on high alert, ready to evacuate passengers immediately if the
05:28situation got worse.
05:30To make things even tougher, the plane was running on battery power, which meant they
05:34could only use one radio to communicate with emergency services.
05:39Luckily, the danger passed, and everyone was able to leave the plane calmly using a set
05:44of stairs.
05:46Everyone on board – 440 passengers and 29 crew members – got out safely.
05:52On the ground in Batam, some debris from the engine fell on a school, houses, and a car.
05:58But thankfully, everyone was okay there as well.
06:02Just a few missteps could've made that situation turn out very differently, but luckily the
06:07crew handled it like heroes.
06:10Investigators eventually found that the problem started because a small oil pipe in the engine
06:15had been poorly made, leading to the disaster.
06:19This was the first time an engine failure like this had happened on an A380.
06:23It was, and still is, the world's largest passenger plane at the time.
06:28As a result, Qantas and some other airlines temporarily grounded all of its A380 planes
06:34to ensure they were safe.
06:37Another similar incident happened with Northwest Airlines Flight 85 in 2002.
06:42The plane took off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport at 2.30 p.m. Eastern Time.
06:48There were 4 pilots on board.
06:51About 7 hours into the flight, flying at 35,000 feet, an unexpected issue struck.
06:57The plane veered sharply, banking to the left.
07:00The pilots initially thought an engine had failed.
07:03The senior captain quickly returned to the cockpit and took manual control.
07:08An emergency was declared, and they decided to divert the flight to Anchorage.
07:13It was hard to communicate as they were in a zone with weak signals.
07:17Eventually they connected with another Northwest Airlines flight nearby, which relayed their
07:22emergency call to Alaska.
07:24The situation was so unusual that none of the usual emergency procedures worked.
07:30The flight crew called Northwest Airlines headquarters in Minneapolis for help, but
07:34even they couldn't find a solution.
07:37Thankfully, the pilots worked together to control the plane.
07:41They managed to steer the plane using the ailerons, and by applying more power to one
07:46engine than the other.
07:47This tricky maneuver allowed them to land safely at Anchorage.
07:52After the incident, the NTSB and Boeing investigated once again.
07:57The NTSB investigator described it as a dramatic event that required careful examination.
08:03They found a crack in the power control module for the rudder, which had caused part of its
08:08metal housing to break.
08:10This break was unusual because it affected the module's outer casing, not just the
08:15inside parts.
08:17The NTSB concluded that the crack led to what's known as a rudder hardover, where the rudder
08:22is pushed to its maximum position and stays there, causing the sudden dangerous turn.
08:29All of these horrible situations show how fatigue, miscommunication, and outdated procedures
08:34can lead to disasters.
08:36But the sheer number of them in history, especially in U.S. airports, raises the question of whether
08:42enough lessons have truly been learned.