Asiana fall out

FAA no longer letting foreign airlines land alongside another plane at San Francisco airport

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - U.S. aviation officials are no longer allowing foreign airlines to land alongside another plane when touching down at San Francisco International Airport in the wake of the deadly Asiana Airlines crash.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement Tuesday it implemented the change "to minimize distractions during a critical phase of flight."

In the past, two planes could approach SFO's main parallel runways at the same time in clear weather. Domestic carriers can still do that, but air traffic controllers are now staggering the arrivals of foreign carriers.

The shift away from side-by-side landing came Sunday, on the same day the FAA started advising foreign airlines to use a GPS system instead of visual reckonings when landing at SFO. The agency said it had noticed an increase in aborted landings by some foreign carriers flying visual approaches.