Meda and I were on United Flight 373 from Honolulu to San Francisco on Saturday, March 21. Our flight was more or less on time, scheduled to arrive at SFO at a bit after 3 p.m.
Meda was in the window seat, right side of the aircraft, looking out the window as we descended. We were on the approach to the airport, dropping in altitude as we came cross the bay toward landing. Everything was smooth.
Then Meda was startled to see another plane not too far below us as we descended, and our pilot reacted by pulling up, circling back around the airport again, and then proceeding with a second approach. This second time we landed safely.
It sure seemed like a close call to us on board. But while I see several incidents like this over the past year or two described online, I haven’t seen anything about this as a reportable incident.
Perhaps the other aircraft wasn’t as close as it looked from Meda’s vantage point. I don’t know.
Maybe someone out there knows how to find whether there’s any info about this apparent in-flight incident?
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Wow. If your pilot had to abort the approach, take avoidance action, and go around again, that’s way too close. Should have been reported. Did ATC mess up, or was it because of pilot error? Could have been either or both.
Given past history, it looks like ATC has had similar incidents.
Beat of Hawaii reported a similar incident last week. An Alaska Air plane was slated to land on a runway perpendicular to one where a FedEx was landing at the same time. At 250 feet (within 60 seconds of touchdown) Alaska was instructed to gain altitude, do a go around, and reapproach. They didn’t collide so I guess it may happen more often than we realize? At least in the larger mainland airports.
So glad you are safe
What flight were you on Ian. I can ask someone.
United 373 HNL-SFO Saturday morning. Somewhere around 3 pm or so, Pacific Daylight Time.
Report it to the safety board as soon as possible so they can investigate. You could be saving lives.
Just done after your comment. Thank you.