For severe congestion. ;-)
There are some great (scary) youtube aborts and landings due to crosswinds. On the last one (wingtip strike) a lot of people had to change their underwear.
Posted on 11/08/2009 6:11:34 PM PST by naturalman1975
A QANTAS plane was just 400 feet off the runway at Melbourne Airport when the pilot was forced to abort a landing this morning, because of congestion.
The 747 jumbo from Los Angeles was carrying 300 passengers when it had to pull out of the landing at the last minute.
The pilot was forced to circle the airport until the runway was cleared.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldsun.com.au ...
As described is this an unusual situation? Is it a really serious one? A sign of things being serious wrong?
I ask because one of my students was on the plane - and he's a bit, well - freaked out - is I suppose the right word. He wants to call his mother in the states (which is fair enough) but I'd rather not freak her out as well.
It happened one a flight I was riding in. Pilot saw another plane on or near the runway and goosed us up and away.
it sounds to me like someone got mixed up on the ground and strayed onto the active runway...400 ft isn’t so serious as our journalist friend makes it out...I’ve seen pax jets go around just 20ft off the ground due to cross winds...and then there is always the student in a Cessna who gets on the runway when they aren’t supposed to - though I doubt there is much in the way of flight training at Melbourne’s int’l airport...
I lived in an apartment overlooking 24 right at LAX for 9 years saw aborted landings all the time could be any number of things
Wow, sounds like the pilot was doing his job instead of doing stuff on his laptop.
In before the Rainman references.
As described is this an unusual situation? Is it a really serious one? A sign of things being serious wrong?
***********************************************************
Good Lord,
It is called a go around. Its as routine as can be.
Godspeed
I thought so - but the kid won’t just take his history teachers word for it :)
Not a biggie. The plane wasn’t even down to the 200’ Decision Height where the pilots make their decision to continue the approach or go missed approach. It appears the pilot had his / her eye on the runway traffic the entire time and executed the missed approach because of a runway incursion or likely because a plane ahead of him / her was late exiting the runway.
Not at all unusual, the proceedure is to move to the right of the runway and proceed as you would if you just took off.
You move to the right so you won't interfere with another airplane who is on or above the runway.
Five years ago I was on the same Qantas flight ... LA to Melbourne ... 14.5 hours in the air. Except for unusual turbulance an hour out from landfall (over the Tasmanian Sea) the flight was routine. Doing a go around upon approach to Melbourne would be a bit annoying ... after 14.5 hours in the air ... everyone (including the Qantas crew) wants the trip to be over.
Non-event. Someone was taking their time getting off the runway, or the controllers were getting a little optimistic with their spacing, and they had to send the 747 around when things didn’t work out. Now, no-one likes to forced into a go-around, especially the accountants who have to find the not inconsiderable amount of money it costs for the fuel, but it’s not a safety issue.
yup right over my balcony
I’ve had it happen a couple time in the years I’ve been flying: literally over the runway, ready to touch down, and pull out at the last second.
Never in a plane as big as a 747; mostly DC-10s. It might be really freaky in a jumbo jet.
Once because of fog (!), once for some vague reason that was never adequately explained.
I doubt they LIKE to do it, and I wouldn’t call it “unusual”, but I don’t think it’s all that big a threat to the plane or passengers.
Just my 2c.
FRegards
Hell, the same thing happended to me flying my 310 into Oxnard CA, after a long 8 hour flight from Oshkosh Wis. A commuter was late getting off the runway. No biggie
Been on a couple of go-rounds myself, mostly due to crosswinds...made me nervous somewhat to be going back up because the ground was right there and I wanted to be on it.
Can certainly understand a young fella being a bit freaked, but let him call his momma, maybe he needs her reassurance, or thinks she’ll hear about herself and be nervous.
Good luck!
Every approach plate has a missed approach procedure, just for such occasions among many others.
Must be a slow day for the journalists. Eating his lunch, watching the planes role in. I can’t imagine why people don’t buy the papers anymore. I think I’m going to raid the refrigerator - will someone please alert the media.
I am a private pilot and recently was flying Southwest in Chicago’s Midway Airport. We were on short final with what looked to be flaps 30 or 40 and of course the gear was down and with a full airplane. All of the sudden he went back to takeoff thrust and we climbed out of there. He told us that someone was crossing the active runway so our pilot initiated a “go-around”. No big deal except for the steam coming out of the captains ears because some bonehead didn’t hold-short of the active.
It happened to me once while landing at ORD in Chicago. The captain got on the horn and calmly advised us he was going around again because someone was where they were not supposed to be.
Better than the alternative of creating a bunch of aliminum confetti and burning jet-fuel on the runway.
We're a boarding school and we always let the boys call their parents if they feel the need (we apply a little commonsense about timezones and things but that's advice more than anything else "Can this wait three hours until your mother is not going to think you're dying?").
The reason I went after information is to reassure him a bit and also her if she asks me what happened.
Personally I think his reaction is mostly down to it being the first time he's flown alone without the unaccompanied minor rigmarole (he convinced her that at nearly 14, and with a dozen or more international flights under his belt, she didn't need to sign him up for that) and this was the first time anything hasn't gone smoothly and it's made him just a bit jumpy.
Happened to me in Pisa, Italy. Huge ground-hugging fog bank. You could see smokestacks stickup up through the fog. We were in the fog forever on approach and, when we finally came out of the fog, the runway was over to the starboard side about 100 feet! We must have been less than 100 feet off the ground when the pilot aborted and we went around.
I tell you, that second approach was the scariest of my life! I was never so thankful as when we came out of the fog on the second approach and the runway was directly below us.
For severe congestion. ;-)
There are some great (scary) youtube aborts and landings due to crosswinds. On the last one (wingtip strike) a lot of people had to change their underwear.
PTOP TEN Crosswind and Scary Aircraft Landings
and
These are some damn good airline pilots!
That happened to a colleague of mine when his plane got squashed by a landing 737 at LAX. Still gives me shudders.
Wikipedia entry: “On February 1, 1991, USAir Flight 1493, a Boeing 737 landing on Runway 24L at LAX, collided on touchdown with a SkyWest Airlines Fairchild Metroliner, Flight 5569 departing to Palmdale, that had been holding in position on the same runway. The collision killed all 12 occupants of the SkyWest plane and 22 people aboard the USAir 737”
bttt
I hear ya. Flying Southwest from El Paso to Dallas one night, a storm didn’t move off as fast as they thought it would, we got caught up into it, bobbing around like a cork among first deep green, the black clouds with lightening shears all around us. We HAD to come down. I almost ripped the arm rests off the seats.
Another time, on Southwest, we had to head for deep six because we ran on a Delta that nobody seemed to know about. We went down so fast, the pilot must’ve been able to see the pop rivets on the back of that plane.
For 12 years I grabbed planes in and out of Texas airports three times a week and landed safely. I won’t don’t fly anymore unless I absolutely have to. I figure the odds of always safe landing got short. ROFL!
That must have been cool! I think I could put up with the noise ... I can sleep through anything, pretty much. And I know for sure that I could put up with watching the airplanes. I love airplanes ...
LAX is one busy airport. Was your friend one of the 22 aboard the 737? If so , sorry for your loss.
Yes he was. Thanks for the kind words.
I once saw a home movie that was shot in a house off the end of the LAX runways. It may have been one of those houses on the beach side, which were all eventually torn down.
Anyway, from the sound track, one would be forced to presume that the roof of the house had tire marks on it.
Of course, the runway was right over there, going thataway...so the go-around wasn't all that bad of an idea.
≤}B^)
Three years ago, I was on a 757 landing at Honolulu on final, when a 747 cargo jet just stopped on the runway ahead of us. Pilot guns it and lifts back up. No big deal, although he did have to ask the tower after a while just what he was supposed to do now............
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