I reported our incident during landing in San Franisco Saturday afternoon to the NTSB over the weekend, and got an automated reply that it was being routed to the investigator assigned to the case. If there is one…

That’s another story, I guess. A haven’t been able to find any indication of a preliminary incident report being filed, although it seems that it might not have been posted online over the weekend. Someone else may have more luck. The search involves United Airlines Flight 373 from Honolulu to San Francisco during landing at SFO on Saturday about 3:15 pm Pacific Daylight time.

Data from the flight log appears on Flight Aware. It confirms that our flight was at about 1,050 feet altitude after passing over the San Mateo Bridge on its landing approach when it suddenly accelerated, quickly gained altitude, and then turned inland and circled around for another attempt. It was at that low point that Meda looked out the window and saw another aircraft below us. If we were just a thousand feet above the bay, as indicated in the flight log data, then only a few hundred feet separated us vertically from the other aircraft. It seems to me that this must required a report by report to filed by the pilot or crew.

I entered the location of our flight just as it broke off the first landing attempt and powered up and away, circling back toward the airport at about 5,000 feet altitude before making its second and successful landing approach. Then I entered the location in Google Earth, which produced this photo of our position about when the incident occurred. The red dot marks the United flight’s position.

Screenshot

My last post described what appeared to be a close call involving our United flight 373 during an attempted landed at SFO Saturday afternoon.

A high school classmate who I reconnected with a few years ago found these flight data in the tracking app, Flight Aware, that appear to confirm our experience.

It shows altitude and flight speed throughout our United flight. Way over on the right, you see altitude and air speed both fall as we make our first approach to the airport in San Francisco.

But just before we land, both increase again suddenly at the time Meda saw another aircraft below us. The data appears to confirm that our flight aborted the landing, gained altitude again, then circled around and made another approach that ended in a successful landing.

UA 373 from HNL to SFO ON 3-21-2026

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?