WASHINGTON: A near miss involving an Air Canada plane which almost landed on a crowded taxiway instead of a runway at San Francisco airport last year could have been the “worst aviation accident in history,” according to an official report.
The Air Canada Airbus A320 carrying 140 people was cleared to land on Runway 28-Right at San Francisco International Airport shortly before midnight on July 7, 2017 — but the pilot inadvertently lined up for Taxiway C, where four planes were waiting to take off.
“Only a few feet of separation prevented this from possibly becoming the worst aviation accident in history,” said Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board while announcing the agency’s report issued Friday.
“The incident airplane descended to an altitude of 100 ft (30 meters) above ground level and overflew the first airplane on the taxiway,” the report said.
“The incident flight crew initiated a go-around, and the airplane reached a minimum altitude of about 60 ft and overflew the second airplane on the taxiway before starting to climb,” it added, noting none of the five flight crewmembers or 135 passengers aboard the Air Canada plane were injured.
The report said the flight crew’s misidentification of the taxiway as the intended runway “resulted from the crewmembers’ lack of awareness of the parallel runway closure due to their ineffective review of notice to airmen (NOTAM) information before the flight and during the approach briefing.”
Other contributing factors were “the flight crew’s failure to tune the instrument landing system frequency for backup lateral guidance, expectation bias, fatigue due to circadian disruption and length of continued wakefulness, and breakdowns in crew resource management.”
An audio recording of the radio exchanges between air traffic control and the pilot of Air Canada flight 759 was posted online shortly after the incident.
Just moments after receiving permission to land on the designated runway, the Air Canada pilot returned to the radio sensing that something was amiss.
“Uh, Tower, I just want to confirm — this is Air Canada 759 — we see some lights on the runway there, across the runway, can you confirm we’re clear to land?“
The tower responded: “Air Canada 759 confirmed clear to land Runway 28-Right. There is no one on 28-Right but you.”
“OK, Air Canada 759,” the pilot replied.
An unidentified man’s voice then broke in — presumably a pilot in one of the aircraft waiting to take off. “Where’s this guy going? He’s on the taxiway,” he said.
Air traffic control immediately told the Air Canada pilot not to land.
“Air Canada go around,” the tower said.
“In the go-around, Air Canada 759,” the pilot responded.
The pilot of a United Airlines plane on the ground told the tower meanwhile that “Air Canada flew directly over us.”
“Yeah, I saw that guys,” the tower replied.
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Air Canada’s near miss last year was almost ‘worst accident in history’
Air Canada’s near miss last year was almost ‘worst accident in history’
- The report said the flight crew’s misidentification of the taxiway as the intended runway “resulted from the crewmembers’ lack of awareness of the parallel runway closure
- The pilot of a United Airlines plane on the ground told the tower meanwhile that “Air Canada flew directly over us.”
UN Security Council extends South Sudan arms embargo
The resolution extends an arms embargo on the country by a year to May 31, 2025
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council overcame resistance from several countries on Thursday and extended an arms embargo and sanctions imposed in an effort to stem violence in South Sudan.
The US-drafted resolution passed with the minimum amount of support necessary, with nine countries in favor and six abstentions.
The text decried “the continued intensification of violence, including intercommunal violence, prolonging the political, security, economic and humanitarian crisis in most parts of the country.”
The resolution extends an arms embargo on the country by a year to May 31, 2025.
It also extends an exemption, adopted a year ago, permitting the transfer of non-lethal military aid in support of a 2018 peace deal without necessitating prior notification.
It also affirms the Security Council’s readiness to review the arms embargo measures, including their ultimate suspension or easing, “in the light of progress” on certain key issues.
The embargo “remains necessary to stem the unfettered flow of weapons into a region awash with guns. Too many people, and especially, women and children, have borne the brunt of this ongoing violence,” said deputy US ambassador to the UN Robert Wood.
Juba rejects that position, along with several Security Council members including Russia, which has long demanded the lifting of the embargo.
“It is essential to acknowledge the significant achievements we have made,” said South Sudan’s ambassador to the UN Cecilia Adeng, who called for a “more balanced approach.”
“Lifting the arms embargo will enable us to build robust security institutions necessary for maintaining peace and protecting our citizens.”
The embargo “is no more serving the purposes of which it was established” and “it is having negative effects since it hinders the ability of the transitional government to create the necessary capacity,” said Amar Bendjama, the ambassador of Algeria which abstained on the vote along with the other African members including Sierra Leone and Mozambique, joining Russia, China and Guyana.
UN arms embargos are increasingly opposed by some member states, particularly African countries which are often backed by Russia.
“It is clear that at this stage, many of the Council sanctions regimes including South Sudan’s are outdated and need to be reviewed,” said Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Anna Evstigneeva.
It was unfortunate that Washington views such embargos as a “panacea for all of the country’s problems,” she said.
From 2013 to 2018, the country’s 12 million people were gripped by a bloody civil war between the followers of two rival leaders, Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, which claimed 380,000 lives.
Violence persists despite a peace deal signed in 2018 and nearly two million people are internally displaced, according to the UN.
The UN Security Council overcame resistance from several countries on Thursday and extended an arms embargo and sanctions imposed in an effort to stem violence in South Sudan. (AFP/File)
Slovak Prime Minister Fico released from hospital, media reports
- The hospital said earlier on Thursday Fico underwent further follow-up examinations
- Fico, 59, was hit in the abdomen and was taken to a hospital
BRATISLAVA: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was released from a hospital in the central city of Banska Bystrica, where he had been recovering from an assassination attempt, and taken to his apartment in Bratislava on Thursday, Slovak media reported.
The hospital and the government office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The hospital said earlier on Thursday Fico underwent further follow-up examinations, which confirmed the positive development of his health condition, and that he had started rehabilitation.
An attacker hit Fico with four bullets at short range when the prime minister greeted supporters at a government meeting in the central Slovak town of Handlova on May 15.
Fico, 59, was hit in the abdomen and was taken to a hospital in Banska Bystrica in serious condition. He immediately underwent a more than five hour operation and another one two days later.
The attacker, identified as 71-year old Juraj C. was detained on the spot and charged with attempted premeditated murder.
Russia not invited to D-Day 80th anniversary, French presidency says
- Organizers had said in April that President Vladimir Putin would not be invited to the events in France
- The commemorations will be attended by dozens of heads of state and government
PARIS: Russia will not be invited to events marking the 80th anniversary of the Second World War’s D-Day landings next week given its war of aggression against Ukraine, the French presidency said on Thursday.
Organizers had said in April that President Vladimir Putin would not be invited to the events in France, but that some Russian representatives would be welcome in recognition of the country’s war-time sacrifice.
Prior to France’s announcement on Thursday two diplomatic sources told Reuters that the Ukraine war and unease among some allies about Moscow’s presence had led Paris to reverse its initial thinking.
The commemorations will be attended by dozens of heads of state and government, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden.
Briefing reporters ahead of next Thursday’s anniversary, a French presidency official confirmed Russia’s absence and that Zelensky had been invited given his country’s “just fight” in the war against Russia.
“Russia has not been invited. The conditions for its participation are not there given the war of aggression launched in 2022, which has only increased these last weeks,” the official said.
Russia is advancing modestly but steadily in eastern Ukraine as two years of war saps Ukraine’s ammunition and manpower.
Earlier this month, three other EU diplomats told Reuters that a number of states from the bloc had said they would be uneasy if Russia attended.
More than 150,000 Allied troops launched the air, sea and land D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, an operation that ultimately led to the liberation of western Europe from Nazi Germany.
The Soviet Union lost more than 25 million lives in what it calls the Great Patriotic War and Moscow marks the victory with a massive annual military parade on Red Square.
Russians officials have attended D-Day ceremonies in the past. During the 70th-anniversary events in 2014, Putin along with the then-leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine set up the so-called Normandy format — a contact group aimed at resolving the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which then focused on the Donbas and Crimea regions.
“When there’s a person, there’s a problem. When there’s no person, there’s no problem,” said one of the diplomatic sources using a quote of former Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s, to describe the decision to not invite Russia.
Israel condemns Slovenia’s Palestinian statehood move
- Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the decision, which requires Slovenian parliamentary approval, rewarded Hamas for murder and rape
JERUSALEM: Israel’s foreign minister denounced the Slovenian government’s decision on Thursday to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the decision, which requires Slovenian parliamentary approval, rewarded Hamas for murder and rape, a reference to the Palestinian Islamist group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
In a statement, Katz said the move also strengthened Israel’s arch-enemy Iran and damaged “the close friendship between the Slovenian and Israeli people.” He added: “I hope the Slovenian parliament rejects this recommendation.”
UK govt calls for release of Hong Kong democracy campaigners
- “We call on the Hong Kong authorities to end NSL prosecutions,” junior foreign minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said
- Britain has become increasingly critical of Beijing’s influence on its former colony
LONDON: The British government on Thursday urged Hong Kong to halt prosecutions under its National Security Law and release 14 pro-democracy campaigners found guilty of subversion.
“We call on the Hong Kong authorities to end NSL prosecutions and release all individuals charged under it,” junior foreign minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said in a statement.
Britain handed back Hong Kong to China in 1997 but has become increasingly critical of Beijing’s influence on its former colony, accusing it of breaking its promise to protect democratic freedoms.
Relations have soured between the two capitals, including after Hong Kongers were given residency and a route to citizenship in the UK due to the crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners.
Trevelyan said Thursday’s verdict was “a clear demonstration of the way that the Hong Kong authorities have used the Beijing-imposed National Security Law to stifle opposition and criminalize political dissent.”
The 14 people found guilty, who were among 47 charged, were “guilty of nothing more than seeking to exercise their right to freedom of speech, of assembly and of political participation,” she said.
“Today’s verdict will only further tarnish Hong Kong’s international reputation. It sends a message that Hong Kongers can no longer safely and meaningfully participate in peaceful political debate.”
