Air carrier Captain reported encountering jet blast on short final at SFO from a departing heavy jet.

Date: 2024-03 · Aircraft: Commercial Fixed Wing · Phase: approach

Anomalies: atc-issue-all-types|ground-event-encounter-jet-blast

Synopsis

Air carrier Captain reported encountering jet blast on short final at SFO from a departing heavy jet.

Narrative

The intention of this report is to raise concerns about the arrival spacing with departures into SFO. There is already a threat with spacing between arrivals on Runways 28L/R with departures on Runways 1L/R. With Runway 28L closed during the construction project I have noticed that the spacing between departures on 28R and arrivals to Runway 28R have become concerningly close. During our ILS Approach to Runway 28R we were asked if we could see the runway. The weather was VMC and we had sight of the runway. We were subsequently cleared a visual approach to the runway. Following this clearance we were asked to do S-turns to the north of the approach path in order to increase spacing for a departure. We initiated S-turns inside of the Final Approach Fix while a heavy aircraft was instructed to line up and wait. The aircraft on the runway was advised that traffic (our aircraft) was on a 2 mile final and then was cleared for takeoff. We were now faced with a decision to continue the approach and potentially encounter wake/thrust turbulence on landing; or conduct a missed approach over top of a departing heavy aircraft. We chose to continue the approach and note where the heavy aircraft lifted off the ground. At around 400 feet (Radio Altitude) I saw the heavy aircraft ahead lift off the runway and announced to the FO (First Officer) (Pilot Flying) that the runway was clear. At approximately 100 feet and just prior to the threshold of the runway we encountered what we believe to be turbulence induced from the thrust of the departing heavy aircraft. This turbulence felt similar to wake turbulence in that it did cause a slight uncommanded rolling moment. The First Officer (Pilot Flying) made sufficient corrections and was able to maintain a stabilized approach condition while landing inside the touchdown zone of Runway 28R. During our debrief; the First Officer and I discussed the threats to safety and agreed that in the future we would consider not accepting the visual approach knowing that a heavy aircraft was to depart ahead of us. There is a perceived rush to get as many aircraft into the airport and as many aircraft out of the airport in a short amount of time and this is coming at the cost of a degraded level of safety.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.