Just to be clear, the term “decision height” has to do with instrument approaches, NOT whether or not to abandon the approach, go around, and take another stab at it.
Simply put, if the crew doesn’t have visual contact with the runway itself or the approach lighting system, they are forbidden by the regs to descend lower than what is specified on the instrument approach chart.
They could’ve elected to abandon the landing at any point while they were still flying. Airplanes do “touch and goes” all the time in training.
Even on table-top runways which are basically built atop flattened hills?
And, IIRC, they were executing an instrument approach, but a VOR approach, not an ILS. So they had no vertical guidance except knowing what the minimum descent altitude was for the approach. They hit that, they can’t see the runway, they go around, period.
}:-)4
Thanks for adding that clarification. I was wondering what the author was talking about with his reference to “decision height.” I had thought the same thing regarding touch & goes.