#TerrorInTheSkies Strikes SFO & John Wayne Airport

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — 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.

Aeromexico Flight 668 from Mexico City had been cleared to land Tuesday and it was about a mile (1.6 kilometers) 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, the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday.

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 newspaper reported.

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

The plane later safely landed, said Ian Gregor, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. He said the FAA has opened an investigation.

An Air Canada flight crew landed in October on one of the airport’s runways despite repeated warnings to abort because a controller believed another airplane had not left the area yet.

In July, an Air Canada jet with 140 people on board nearly landed on one of the airport’s taxiways where four planes were waiting to take off, prompting the FAA to issue new rules for nighttime landings and control tower staffing at the airport.

Read the full story at Associated Press

A tentative agreement that has been reached between Newport Beach, Orange County, and the FAA will change flight paths in order to avoid certain neighborhoods following noise complaints.

This agreement comes after flight paths were already changed in March in order to reduce flight delays and fuel usage.

Newport Beach and Orange County sued the FAA in federal court on the grounds that these new paths disrupted neighborhoods.

Newport Beach City Councilman Kevin Muldoon said, “We want to make the airlines that fly out of John Wayne Airport aware of the noise and health concerns and request they work with us to mitigate those impacts."

Laguna Beach and Culver City also have ongoing lawsuits over flight paths.

Read the full story at The Orange County Register


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