I’ve never been on an arline flight where the pilots had to go around and re-attempt the landing. Has anyone? How common is this for U.S. carriers? I looked at NTSB.gov site a bit and they have info on accidents and incidents, but I did not see any data on the occurance I refer to.
You mean a touch-n-go? Or a miscalculation before hitting the runway, and thottling up again?
For a touch-n-go, I would assume that it would be hard for a Commercial airline to do this. At any point in the landing that they would need to take off again, it would require a lot of power, and not enough runway. I’m not saying it hasn’t been done, just difficult.
I used to work overlooking the end of one the runways at London’s Heathrow. Go-arounds did not happen on a daily basis, maybe one every 2 - 3 weeks or so. Usualy they seemed to be to avoid a plane which took too long to leave the runway after landing. Sure made a lot of noise as it accelerated past the office window :eek:
It’s happened to me just once, in Wellington, New Zealand. When we broke out of the clouds (at about 300’) it was obvious the pilot had botched the approach and there was no chance of a successful landing - it was clearly a case of go around or wind up in the water. The second attempt was much better.
It happened to me once as well, and I have flown around 500,000 actual miles, so it’s not that common. We were landing and the pilot saw a deer on the runway. We went around and landed without incident.
Happened to me once in Cairns about 15 years ago. As we were landing in a commercial jet liner, there was a light aircraft in the way for some reason. It was kind of scary without being nerve wracking.
It happened to me once. I don’t recall now where it was or when. But we were on a standard approach and no more than about fifty feet off the deck when the pilot went to full power and began climbing sharply. We circled back and came in again and landed normally.
They didn’t say anything about it over the PA (which I thought was rather strange), but when I asked a crew member about it as we were leaving, they said that a plane hadn’t fully cleared the runway ahead of us.
I had one in about 600,000 miles of flying.
We were on apporach to LAX and ATC vectored us behind a 747 (too close behind) we had some wake turbulence and then did not drop any more altitude. We passed over the airport at about 5,000 feet flew out over the Pacific where me made a big turn and came back for a second shot. Pilot blamed it on an ATC mistake.
One of my co-workers was on a Delta flight where they did touch down then went back up and did it again. Pilot said they they had touched down late and he was not sure if he had enough runway left. Better safe than sorry.
I was on a flight into Boston where the pilot should have gone around. We landed in the rain, reversers came up and the brakes went into anti-lock (I could hear the hydraulic pump cycling) When we got to the very end of the runway the pilot hung a hard turn (we were still moving very fast) and out the window I could fence at the end of the runway just beyond our wing tip. :eek:
Had one, on a flight into Midway.
Pilot said a truck had turned onto the runway by mistake.
They aren’t very common, but they do happen. You shouldn’t find them on the NTSB database because they are considered neither accidents nor incidents.
We did a touch and go at O’Hare a few months ago.
About three seconds after touchdown, the pilot powered up and we took off again. It was definitely more abrupt and startling than a normal take-off.
The pilot came on the intercom and said something like “we got a gust of wind on landing, so we decided to do it again”.
I said, it a somewhat loud voice, “I guess we’ve got a student pilot today”.
Nervous laughter ensued from the cabin.
It’s happened to me once, in several hundred flights. A plane crossing the runway out of turn. The pilot said it probably wouldn’t have been a problem, since we were at one end of the runway, and the offending plane was at the other – but that’s what you do in a situation like that.
Nah. It’s easy for airliners to do this, assuming sufficient runway*. When I take my students to AFW (Alliance Airport), it’s not unusual to share the pattern** with a 777 doing touch & goes. Not frequent, but not unusual either.
*AFW’s is 9600 feet
**They take a left pattern, we take a right pattern. Works out just fine, and a great time for a lesson on wake-turbulence.
Once (that I know of!), the pilot just plain couldn’t get into the right position in time and had to circle. No other traffic problems or anything.
Had it happen just once, a couple of months ago, after a couple hundred thousand miles of commercial flights. Was in 1A on a Delta 757 on an EWR-ATL flight. I have several dozen landings at ATL in 757s behind me, and so I have a pretty good idea of what’s normal and what’s not. As we were on final approach, I remember thinking that we seemed to be coming in way faster than usual. We were down to no more than 100-200 ft., and suddenly the pilot increased thrust and we started ascending again, followed by a fairly steep bank right once we regained some altitude. I was speculating that we had come in too hot and the pilot had decided not to risk it, but once we were parallel to the runway again, heading back east, the pilot came on and announced that a plane in front of us had taken too long to clear the runway, so we were forced to go around. No way for me to tell which is true, and if I had been in B or C instead of A I would have had no reason to doubt him, but definitely had the sense that something was wrong even before we pulled up.
Hmmm… had it happen years and years ago when I’d only had less than 10 flights under my belt (as a passenger). In Orlando, we touched down, then abruptly took off again. The pilot announced (very, very casually) that there was another plane on the runway. Never deterred me from flying, though, and now I guess that it’s not such a horrendous event (what do you mean there’s another plane on the runway?!?).
Very rare and I would guess close to never at the last minute. At major airports like O’Hare or LAX unscheduled drop-in airplane flights just do not happen except maybe, just maybe, in case of a dire emergency.
LAX landings, for example, are sequenced early in the flight to that terminal. Maybe before you even leave the ground at your point of departure.
If you drive down the north side of the San Bernardino Mountains east of LAX at night you can see the landing lights of planes way off into the distance coming from Las Vegas headed for LAX. The LAX approach control starts at Las Vegas I believe so there is little chance for any plane to be out of sequence and have to make a go around.
First off - as Broomstick said earlier, you’ll find no data for numbers of go-arounds. It’s simply not an event worth tracking - not an accident, not an incident - just another attempt at landing.
Any number of things can make us go-around and try it again. As many here have experienced, something (another aircraft or airport vehicle) pulling onto the runway of intended landing necessitates a go-around. Strong, gusty winds might also play a factor - you think you have everything lined up and then - WHAM! - you get socked by a gust 10 feet from touching down. Rather than fight the air while getting closer to the ground, you apply power and climb away from the ground.
For anyone who is curious as to how bad a gust of wind can be, take a look at a UPS DC-8 that gets hit just prior to touchdown. (Note: the movie is about 1/3 of the way down the page. Look for the picture of a UPS jet from behind.) Those guys did the right thing - they went around and came back for another try.
Go-arounds are rare, but they are by no means emergencies. I average about one a year while flying commercially. In my training in the simulator, of course, the go-arounds outnumber the landings by about 4-1!
The bottom line is that while go-arounds may feel unusual and it is not what you expected it IS the safest thing for the pilots to do. Flying airplanes through the (sometimes unstable) atmosphere into airports run by other (sometimes fallible) people means that things don’t always work out as planned. The proper (and safe) course of action is a go-around.
WOW! pilot141.
Everyone, also check out the 747 ‘crabbing’ in on pilot141’s link.
That’s some great flying. Or really bad, but wow.
I’ve personally caused a 757 to make a go around.
Responding to a fire alarm at our airport, my driver was told by tower to “cross without delay, traffic on a 2 mile final.” The fire station is on the opposite side of the runways from most of the other buildings at the airport, so we need to cross the field on almost every call. The other two trucks responding with us to the alarm hadn’t made it up the driveway for the station yet, so we told the controller that it was us “plus two.” He again told us to cross without delay. Instead of crossing and taking a paralell taxiway, my driver swung a hard right and drove down the runway. The other two trucks followed us (as they’re supposed to). As we were clearing the runway, the tower gave the flight “…go around.” We looked at each other, said something that loosely translates into “ut oh,” just with more four letter words, and continued on our way.
We heard about it from several higher-ups the next day at work. It hasn’t happened again (by us, at least).
To answer the OP, though, we usually see about one or two per month at our airport, usually caused by a spacing problem during peak hours (17 landings in a 30 minute period every morning on a single runway).
In over 300,000 miles of air travel I’ve had 2 touch and go’s. The first was my fifth Lufthansa flight into Dresden, Germany, within a 3 month span. I thought our 737 was going too fast as we started the descent. Closer and closer to the ground, I can see the flughafen and know we’re going too fast. We touch down. “We’re gonna end up in AMD’s parking lot,” I say to myself. The pilot pulls up, goes around and announces that we were going too fast to land. Duh.
The other time was the end of a Madrid to San Juan, PR flight. It seemed to be a much longer flight than the 9 hours on my watch. I was ready to be off that plane. Gratefully I see sand and palm trees as we descend. We almost touch down then we power up. AAAuugh! 10 more minutes on that d****d plane! The Iberia Airlines pilot gave no notice of why.
I agree that they’re pretty rare and not an event to be tracked. Just another random inconvenience air travelers must contend with like closed restrooms.