Qualla: Air Canada Flight 759

Air Canada Flight 759: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit John Kahrs / Junkyard kahrs at en.wikipedia, Public domain. Five seconds. That is how close Air Canada Flight 759 came to causing what aviation experts called potentially the greatest disaster in the history of flight. On the night of July 7, 2017, an Airbus A320 carrying 140 people from Toronto lined up not with Runway 28R at San Francisco International Airport, but with Taxiway C -- where four fully loaded, fully fueled passenger aircraft sat waiting for takeoff. The jet descended to 59 feet above the ground as it passed over a Philippine Airlines A340 — with less than 20 feet of clearance above the aircraft's tail. One analyst calculated that five more seconds without a go-around would have produced a collision. Over a thousand people were in the immediate zone of risk.

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Image: John Kahrs / Junkyard kahrs at en.wikipedia | Public domain

Air Canada Flight 759: The Wrong Lights

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit quinn norton from Excellent Question, CC BY 2.0. At 11:46 p.m. local time, Flight 759 was on final approach to Runway 28R. The parallel runway, 28L, was closed for construction, marked by a 20.5-foot flashing X at its threshold. But the construction lighting on the closed runway resembled ramp lighting, and in the darkness the ...

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Image: quinn norton from Excellent Question | CC BY 2.0

Air Canada Flight 759: Four Jets in the Dark

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mark Harkin, CC BY 2.0. On Taxiway C, four aircraft were queued for takeoff. United Airlines Flight 1 to Singapore carried up to 252 passengers in a Boeing 787-9. Philippine Airlines Flight 115 to Manila held up to 254 in an Airbus A340-300. United Flight 863 to Sydney had another 252 aboard a 787-9. Un...

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Image: Mark Harkin | CC BY 2.0

Air Canada Flight 759: The Investigation That Almost Didn't Happen

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bill Larkins, CC BY-SA 2.0. Under federal regulations at the time, the incident was not technically reportable. The NTSB was not informed until July 9, two days later. By then, the aircraft had flown three more commercial flights, and the cockpit voice recorder -- which overwrites itself every two hours -- ...

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Image: Bill Larkins | CC BY-SA 2.0

Air Canada Flight 759: Five Seconds from History

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. The Tenerife airport disaster of 1977, which killed 583 people, has long stood as the deadliest accident in aviation history. Had Flight 759 struck the aircraft on Taxiway C, the combined passenger load of over 1,000 people and the fuel aboard five aircraft could have produced ca...

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Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain