Originally Posted by
DDMow
It's possible that English Language Fluency played a role that night at SFO. The AC759 crew were fully fluent in english, and as such were able to both understand and act immediately to UA01's radio transmission. What if the crew had not been fluent in english? What if this had been a foreign (no disrespect, simply a fact considering the numbers of asian airliners flying into SFO) airliner flown by foreign pilots that were NOT FLUENT IN ENGLISH? Keeping all other approach factors the same as AC759's were that night, the delay in understanding, by even a few seconds, the importance of what UA01 had said over the radio and acting on the information might very well have resulted in a Tenerifesque collision.
Personally I believe the UAL 1 call to tower was perhaps at best a first wake up call to the AC crew but they still continued in their landing phase past UAL 1 because go around trust was only applies at 85 feet AGL (past UAL 1).
What I believe saved the day was PAL 115 turning on their landing lights. They must have been scared sh!less at the approaching aircraft!