One of the "worst aviation disasters in history" was averted last week when an Air Canada plane was prevented at the last minute from landing into four aircraft on a busy taxiway.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the incident where one of the carrier’s Airbus A320s arriving at night at San Francisco from Toronto was preparing to land on a runway, only for the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower to order the pilot to pull up after becoming aware of four aircraft lined up on the tarmac waiting to depart.

Telegraph logo This video content is no longer available To watch The Telegraph's latest video content please visit youtube.com/telegraph

It is estimated the plane abandoned the landing at 400 feet, missing two aircraft on the ground by about 100 feet.

The FAA said Flight AC759 was cleared to land on a runway, but the pilot “inadvertently” navigated towards a parallel taxiway instead. It said the July 7 incident was “very rare”.

Air Canada, which is also investigating the incident, said its aircraft was carrying 135 passengers and five crew members. A spokesperson, Peter Fitzpatrick, told CBC News: “Air Canada flight AC759 from Toronto was preparing to land at San Francisco airport Friday night when the aircraft initiated a go-around.

An aerial view of San Francisco airport Credit: 2013 Robert Alexander/Robert Alexander

"The aircraft landed normally without incident. We are still investigating the circumstances and therefore have no additional information to offer.”

It is not known how many passengers were on the aircraft on the taxiway, but in a recording that has emerged of communications between the ATC tower and pilots in the area, one person on the flight deck of an aircraft on the ground is heard saying: “United One, Air Canada flew directly over us.”

The Aviation Herald reported that after being cleared to land the crew “queried the tower to confirm they were cleared to land advising they were seeing lights on the runway, the tower advised the runway was clear and they were clear to land indeed”.

However, another voice came over the radio to explain that the Air Canada plane was lined up with the taxiway. The ATC then immediately ordered the Air Canada pilot to pull up and make another approach. The plane landed safely 15 minutes later.

Retired United Airlines captain Ross Aimer, now CEO of Aero Consulting Experts, said: “If it is true, what happened probably came close to the greatest aviation disaster in history.

“If you could imagine an Airbus colliding with four passenger aircraft wide bodies, full of fuel and passengers, then you can imagine how horrific this could have been.”

The deadliest air disaster in history took place on March 27, 1977, on the Canary Island of Tenerife, where an aircraft carrying 248 people began take off only to crash into a taxiing aircraft carrying 396. The incident resulted in the death of 583 people.