Originally Posted by
fleigle
The AC crew were the only ones to get "confused" that night, it was severe clear weather.
No, they were not, as evidenced by the statement by the captain of the preceding Delta flight:
There was a lot of traffic that night and we were vectored off the DYAMD3 arrival and flew past the SFO
airport, then given a 180 degree turn to the East, then a turn near TRDOW to intercept the FMS Bridge Visual
28R. The weather was VFR and RWY 28L was under construction and NOTAM’d closed. Aircraft were lined up on
taxiway C for takeoff and this caused me to question if I was lining up on the correct runway.
The last time I had flown the bridge visual was several months prior and it was in the daytime. I
could see what I thought were two sets of parallel runway lights. Aircraft on taxiway C were stopped and had
their taxi lights off which helped to create this miss conception that taxiway C was RWY 28R. Had the runway
sequenced flashing lights been on it would have defined the landing runway or had we flown the ILS we would
have had precision course guidance which would have eliminated the illusion that we were not lined up on 28R.
Because we were flying a visual approach and not a precision approach, this also caused me to question
if I was lined up on 28R. We confirmed that we were lined up with 28R,cross checking it with the LNAV on final.
I was preparing to go-around if I could not confirm which runway I was landing on. It was confirmed
prior to crossing the threshold when I saw 28R painted on the runway.
And the First Officer of the Delta flight:
Once we turned on final, there was some confusion. We were lined up on a runway, to the left was an obvious
construction site and to the right was what appeared to be a taxiway. However, the lighting was different and I
did not know until after landing that was because there were aircraft lined up on it waiting to takeoff.
As noted earlier in this thread:
Originally Posted by
AerocatS2A
It is interesting that the previous landing also questioned to themselves if they were lined up on the correct runway stating that the construction lights were very bright and made it impossible to see the closed runway, also that the lack of lights on the jets on the taxiway contributed to their confusion. Of course they sorted things out fine, but it certainly suggests that the visual environment was not good.
I think this will be a very important observation for the final NTSB report.