An Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle aborted its landing at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday after the pilot reported seeing another aircraft near the runway she had been cleared to use, NBC Bay Area reported.
The flight was Alaska 528. Over the cabin speaker, the pilot told passengers, “There was an airplane that was taxiing across the end of the runway that was questionable, in terms of the proximity to our arrival runway,” and later, “We thought the best course of action was the safest one, and we’ll come back around and do it again,” according to audio cited by NBC. Passenger Jake Milstein, a former KNTV employee, described the pull-up as abrupt: “It wasn’t a gentle motion. … We were coming down, and then the up was a bit of a jerk.” NBC, citing Flightradar24, said two airplanes had landed on the same runway ahead of the Alaska jet and were off the runway though still nearby. A spokesperson for SFO declined to comment, and Alaska Airlines and the FAA did not immediately respond, the station reported. Aviation consultant Mike McCarron told NBC that go-arounds are a standard safety move in congested airspace and that investigators would look at whether spacing was too tight. NBC said the FAA and NTSB would be expected to review the event, but it did not report that a formal investigation had been opened.
Alaska’s flight-status page for Flight 528 on Nov. 10 lists a Seattle-to-San Francisco trip operated with a 737-9 that arrived delayed, with the airline attributing the delay to “longer than anticipated aircraft service/turnaround.” The official status page does not describe a go-around or another aircraft on the runway. NBC, citing FAA data, said go-arounds occur in about one to three of every 1,000 flights, and that SFO handles more than 1,000 flights a day on closely spaced parallel runways. The station compared the episode to past close calls at the airport, including a 2017 Air Canada taxiway approach, while noting that in this case the pilot, not a controller, initiated the abort.