Originally Posted by
413X3
At that time of night, the single controller is clearance, ground, and tower. He/she has enough to do than remind a pilot to do their job and read the notam and listen to the atis.
I agree entirely. That was not what I meant.
My analysis is this. When the pilot is cleared to land on 28R, there is an implicit instruction here to be careful not to land on 28L. These pilots were so fixated on avoiding L that they lined up on a taxiway. There's been a lot of discussion about technological solutions, and hand-wringing that the plane was not equipped with GPS. I'm offering the idea there may be a simpler solution.
Let me reframe my inicial suggestion. How about, when one runway is not visible, atc drops the L and R, and simply says cleared to land on 28. Cognitive dissonance should then snap any pilot, whose not as prepared as they may be, out of a tunnel-vision routine.