SFO: The Typo that Almost Crashed a Plane

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SFO: The typo that almost crashed a plane

In 2017, a commercial airliner lined up for takeoff at San Francisco International Airport on runway 01 Left, the main departure route.

The pilot accidentally punched 10 Left - a much longer SFO runway - into the cockpit computer, causing the plane to incorrectly calculate the appropriate thrust and wing flap settings.

The pilot's simple reversing of the number caused the plane to nearly run out of runway, lifting off with only 400 feet left of asphalt, according to a Federal Aviation Administration report obtained by The Chronicle through the Freedom of Information Act.

It wasn't the only such close call at SFO. The March 2018 FAA safety report found 25 cases from 2014 to 2017 in which airplanes from several carriers took off with less than 1,000 feet of runway remaining. The FAA believes some of those cases probably were a result of "transposition error" and said no other major airport in the United States has had a similar problem.

Aviation experts say airliners need to lift off the ground with enough runway left to abort a takeoff - 400 feet isn't nearly enough and 1,000 feet is too close.

"Wow, that is practically the end of the runway!" retired pilot Ross Aimer, an aviation consultant familiar with SFO, said of the 2017 incident. "They were lucky they didn't take out some of the instrument landing equipment erected at the end of that runway."

The runway 01 error revelations are the latest issue at the airport involving its runways, taxiways and tarmac. The airport closed its busiest runway, 28L, on Sept. 7 for 20 days of repairs, leading to more than 1,000 flight delays and hundreds of cancellations. The closure was not related to the runway number issue but resulted from deteriorating concrete.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.