Aeromexico plane nearly lands on occupied runway, in latest near-miss at San Francisco airport

An Aeromexico passenger jet was ordered to abort a landing at San Francisco International Airport as it descended toward a runway occupied by another commercial jet, the third close call at the busy airport in six months, officials said Thursday.

Aeromexico Flight 668 from Mexico City had been cleared to land Tuesday and it was about 1.6km from the airport when controllers saw the aircraft was lined up for a runway occupied by a Virgin America Airbus A320 jet waiting to take off for Kona, Hawaii, Ian Gregor, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said in an email.

The tower ordered the Aeromexico Boeing 737 jet to circle around.

“Aeromexico 668 go around!” an air traffic controller is heard saying on audio recordings, the Mercury News in San Jose, California, reported.

The pilot quickly acknowledges the request to abort the landing: “Aeromexico 668 going around.”

The 11.45am event happened after the Aeromexico jet was cleared on Runway 28R the airport, which is parallel to Runway 28L. The R stands for right and the L stands for left, Gregor said.