Aeromexico Almost Causes One Of The Greatest Accidents In Aviation History

The FAA has launched an investigation after an Aeromexico aircraft lined up with the wrong runway which was occupied by a Virgin America Airbus A320.

An Aeromexico 737-800 , registered XA-AMU, operating flight AM668 from Mexico City on the 9th of January 2018 was cleared to land on runway 28R at around 19:45UTC. The captain correctly read back the clearance to air traffic controllers.

When the aircraft was about a mile from the airport Air Traffic Controllers noticed the aircraft was incorrectly lined up with runway 28L which was occupied by a Virgin America Airbus A320 which was awaiting takeoff clearance prior to its flight to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

The towered then told the Aeromexico aircraft to abort the landing. The pilot of the Aeromexico quickly acknowledged the request to abort the landing and performed a go-around.

The Aeromexico jet was approaching San Fransisco using the ILS. The weather at San Fransisco was overcast with visibility at around 10 miles.

The Aeromexico flight then safely landed 16 minuted later at 20:01UTC on runway 28L.

This is the third incident at San Fransisco in the last 8 months. All these incidents are currently being investigated by the FAA.