A recent near-miss between jets taxiing across runways at San Francisco International Airport was avoided by a United flight crew, and it appears to have been the fault of an overwhelmed and/or overtired air traffic controller.

As we continue to live in a less-than-safe, not at all incident-free era of air travel, we get another story out of SFO that is fairly unsettling. The June 24 incident is described in the VASAviation video below, with plenty of explanation about the technicalities.

Essentially, an Air Canada jet, Flight 760, was preparing for takeoff on Runway 1R, but requested an extra minute to warm up its engines. Meanwhile, further up the runway, United Airlines Flight 1111, a widebody jet bound for Hawaii, was on Taxiway F, making its way to one of the longer runways which are needed by larger jets.

An air traffic controller working ground control that morning — this all occurred around 8 am, and it's not clear if this was nearer the end or the beginning of his shift — instructs the United flight to "cross 1L and cross 1R." But as the pilot approaches 1R he can see the incoming traffic on the runway, and asks over the radio clarify. The controller corrects himself, essentially saying he meant to say "cross 1L and hold at 1R," two which the pilot responds "No, you gave us a cross," but they hold and the potential disaster was averted.

As the VASAviation commentator explains, the controller's instruction to "cross 1L and cross 1R" may have just come out automatically, because he'd said it so often already that shift. But in that split-second error, in a situation with lower visibility, the United flight would have rolled into the takeoff path of the Air Canada jet. The commentator says the controller sounds possibly fatigued as well.

The Chronicle first picked up the incident via VASAviation's YouTube video.

This incident comes after a near mid-air collision between two planes taking off on parallel runways at SFO on May 13. As the Chronicle reported at the time, that incident involved a Dallas-bound United plane, Flight 1152, and SkyWest Flight 5273 headed for Fresno. They were taking off simultaneously from runways 1L and 1R, and the the larger United plane on 1R was cleared to turn right after takeoff. Instead, the United plane veered left into the path of the SkyWest plane, and the two averted disaster thanks to a quick evasive move by the SkyWest pilot.

The United pilot later explained that the first officer on the plane, making his first takeoff from SFO, followed the automated flight-management system instructions, which incorrectly indicated a left turn, instead of obeying the control tower's instructions.

The FAA is investigating the incident, which made national news.

More on that near-miss below.

Top image: Photo by David Syphers