(Eagle News) — A Filipina, Pamela Aguilar, from Fremont, California was one of the 135 passengers who were on board Air Canada flight 759 on July 7, 2017, that fateful Friday night when their plane almost collided with four other large planes on a taxiway at the San Francisco International airport.
It was a long day, she recalled.
She came from a vacation in Rome, Italy, and her flight out of Rome was delayed by about an hour and 45 minutes, which caused her to miss her original connecting flight in Toronto, Canada.
After arriving in Toronto, she and the other passengers were placed on the next connecting flight to San Francisco, California which happened to be flight 759. The plane was even delayed an hour before taking off. And they were all exhausted.
But that was not to be the end of it.
Because she along with the other passengers, who were on that connecting flight from Toronto, could have perished that Friday night of July 7 at 11:56 p.m. when their plane was about to land at the San Francisco International Airport.
-Plane in near collision with 4 other large planes on SFO taxiway
Their plane figured in a near catastrophic collision with four other large planes — fully loaded with fuel and passengers waiting to depart at San Francisco Airport’s Taxiway C.
The pilot of their plane, Air Canada Flight 759, thought that Taxiway C was the runway, 28 Right or 28R where they were supposed to land. Runway 28R was just about 150 meters away from Taxiway C which ran parallel to it.
It could have all happened — a deadly plane crash involving three Boeing planes and two Airbus planes, which collectively had about a thousand unsuspecting passengers on board that night.
-“Close call” could have been “worst aviation disaster”
It was only a matter of 11 seconds. That close call was described as what could have been “the worst aviation disaster in history.” Airline and aviation circles, including investigators, are still abuzz and in a frenzy to this day.
The Federal Aviation Administration of the US as well as the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.
That disaster could have easily happened given the situation’s circumstances. But thankfully, it did not.
-“God was watching over me”
And for Pamela, she knew immediately God saved her then.
“Immediately I thought God is watching over me,” she said in an interview with Eagle News Service in California.
“When it really sank in. The fact that I potentially could have died that night. Wow!”
“God really spared my life, God was with me,” she said matter-of-factly.
Pamela only realized what happened three days later, when the “close call” or near disaster was reported by San Francisco’s Mercury News that first broke the story of the near collision.
“The funny thing is I didn’t realize that it was an incident until several days later, when a good friend of mine who actually picked me up that night forwarded me the link to the Mercury News story about the flight. And he said, ‘Was this the flight you were on?’ I read it and said, ‘Wow! it is.’ It was maybe like three days later,” she recalled.
When she realized how lucky she was, as well as the other passengers on board those five planes, Pamela was grateful she’s alive.
“I wasn’t surprised, I said, ‘Of course God was with me. I didn’t feel as afraid as a lot of the reaction I was getting from people. I actually felt happy, like, ‘Yey! I’m alive,” said Pamela, an active member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) in Fremont, California.
In her Facebook post, a few minutes after she read the news of the near catastrophic collision, Pamela wrote: “I was on this flight… God was watching over me, I wasn’t meant to go yet!”
“I think what was the most impactful was how it was described as it was potentially … that it could have been the worst aviation accident in history. That really hit me, when I read that phrase,” she said.
“I had no idea it was that close,” she said.
It was indeed a “close call,” too close for comfort in fact that had worried US aviation authorities which are now investigating the incident — the Air Canada plane nearly landing on a crowded taxiway instead of a runway at San Francisco airport.
The incident was first reported by The Mercury News, which cited aviation experts as saying that a potentially horrific accident had been narrowly averted.
“If it is true, what happened probably came close to the greatest aviation disaster in history,” Ross Aimer, a retired United Airlines captain, told the newspaper.
“If you could imagine an Airbus colliding with four passenger aircraft wide bodies, full of fuel and passengers, then you can imagine how horrific this could have been,” he said.
Air Canada said in a statement that it was investigating the circumstances of the go-around involving its plane and has “no additional information to offer” at this time.
-Cleared to land on Runway 28-R
The Air Canada Airbus A320 was cleared to land on Runway 28-Right at San Francisco International Airport shortly before midnight on Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.
“However, the pilot inadvertently lined up for Taxiway C, which runs parallel to the runway,” the FAA said in a statement. “An air traffic controller sent the Air Canada jet around.
“The plane made another approach and landed without incident.”
This was how it happened based on a Bay Area News Group video re-creation of the landing using flight data records and audio recording.
A few minutes before landing, Air Canada 759 communicated with the tower control of the San Francisco International Airport, saying they have a visual of runway 28-R, and asked for clearance to land.
The San Francisco airport tower said: “Air Canada 759, tower. Quiet bridge, visual 28R. Cleared to land. Wind 270 at 8.”
Air Canada flight 759 responded: “Cleared to land Runway 28R, Air Canada 759.”
A few seconds later, Air Canada again called the airport tower, after its pilot noticed “some lights” at what he thought was the runway.
“And tower, just want to confirm. This is Air Canada 759. I see lights on the runway there.. Can you confirm we are clear to land?” the Air Canada pilot asked.
To which the SFO tower responded: “Air Canada 759, confirm. Cleared to land, Runway 28R. There is no one on 28R but you.”
The pilot of Air Canada flight 759, then told tower, “Okay, Air Canada 759.”
-Where’s this guy going? He’s on the taxiway?
Immediately after that, the pilot of United Airline flight 1, noticing the Air Canada flight 759 approaching them in seconds, told SFO tower: “Where’s this guy going? He’s on the taxiway.”
San Francisco airport tower, then immediately told the pilot of Air Canada to “go around.”
The Air Canada flight that was about to land passed over the United Airlines flight 1 at the taxiway with just a distance of 69 fight.
Then it received the warning from San Francisco airport tower: “Air Canada, go around.”
Immediately, the Air Canada pilot, responded that it will.
-Full PAL flight 115 was 2nd plane on taxiway
“In the go around, Air Canada 759,” it said as Air Canada’s flight 759 passed over the second plane on the taxiway, an Airbus A340 Philippine Air Lines (PAL) flight 115 bound for Manila. The overhead distance was a frighteningly close 51 feet. The PAL flight for Manila has a capacity of 264 people.
After passing over the PAL flight, Air Canada flight 759 began to slowly ascend.
A few seconds later, airport tower told the Air Canada flight, “Air Canada 759, it looks like you were lined up for Charlie there,” referring to taxiway C where the four fully-loaded planes were located.
When it passed by the third plane on Taxiway C, a United Airlines flight 863 bound for Sydney, Australia, the overhead distance was 119 feet.
And when it flew over the fourth plane lined up on the taxiway, another United Airlines plane, a Boeing 737-900, flight 1118 bound for Cancun, Mexico, its distance over it was still a close 219 feet.
-“Air Canada flew directly over us,” says United Airlines pilot
About 10 seconds later, the United Airlines flight 1 pilot, reported to the control tower: This is United 1.. Air Canada flew directly over us…”
To which the control tower responded: “Yeah, I saw that guys.”
Inside Air Canada flight 759 plane, Pamela and the rest of the 134 passengers were unaware of all of these happening.
Pamela recalls: The plane is close to landing. You can see the runway. I was so happy. And then, all of a sudden the plane abruptly just started to take off again, like we were literally about to land. And then the plane kind of pulled up, and then we ended up circling for quite a while. Nobody knew why, nobody said anything.
“I was startled, so I’m sure everybody else was startled as well. But we circled for another 15 minutes. We landed without any incident. But nothing was said to us in the plane, the passengers, at the time it was happening.”
When they finally landed, it was already past midnight, and they were all exhausted.
Pamela recalled she was just glad she had finally reached the airport.
“You know what? I think there was a murmuring. but like I said, it was really late at night. All of us were pretty tired. Definitely startled,” she said.
And at that time, all of them definitely did not know how they missed a catastrophic collision, a potential aviation disaster.
They realized it all after a few days, when the incident was reported all over the news.
And Pamela is extremely thankful to God that she is still alive today.
“God really spared my life, God was with me,” she said.
Pamela said the experience has not deterred her resolve to still fly, as she will continue to trust in God as she had done in the past.
(Eagle News Service, with a report from Agence France Presse)