The Worst Plane Crash Avoided by a Split Second

In 2017, Air Canada Flight 759 came terrifyingly close to causing one of the worst aviation disasters ever at San Francisco International Airport. The plane was supposed to land on a clear runway but instead started descending onto a taxiway where four fully loaded planes were waiting to take off. The pilots mistook the taxiway for the runway in the dark, coming within 14 feet of hitting another plane. A quick-thinking air traffic controller yelled for the Air Canada pilots to abort their landing at the last second. The plane pulled up just in time, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic pile-up that could’ve affected hundreds of lives. Experts later said it was sheer luck and sharp reactions that prevented tragedy that night.