V-Flyer

Travelling home last night I was heading South on the M25 near LHR at 7pm when a VS 346 passed directly overhead about to land on 09R. I glanced to the left in time to notice the engines throttle up and it began to climb again and begin a turn to the North presumably to go around. Investigation this morning seems to indicate it was the VS401 from Dubai and it finally landed at 7:20pm

Now, although unusual, I know there is nothing dangerous with this and it is normal'ish' standard procedure normally because of traffic on the runway but it provoked a couple of questions in my head.

1. Just how unusual is this? My flight tally sits at around 400 and I have never experienced a go-around. Are there any stats published?
2. Has anyone been onboard during such an event and how is it announced / explained - reaction from passengers?

Of course if anyone has additional information on yesterday then that would be good too.

Thanks

Phil

We had an aborted landing, not Virgin, in Lanzarote last year.

We were very low and about to land when we suddenly went up again. I can tell you I was freaked, and my husband scared for the first time flying.There did seem to be some loud knocking from underneath the aircraft!! Passengers were sharing all sorts of theories, but the crew were obviously too busy to tell us anything. We turned and came in the other way, safely!

Apparenly a freak gust of wind suddenly knocked us off course - we were over the grass! The Captain did announce it once we had landed.

Happened to me on an Easyjet flight into Stansted last Septemeber.

Very foggy and cloudy and almost on the ground when the plane sped up and climbed steeply.

Turns out that the runway ahead wasnt clear (ie plane in the way) and we had to circle round again.

You could hear the anger in the captains voice when he came on the intercom after having (probably) screamed at Air Traffic control.

Wasn`t overally bothered but there were some people on the plane who were visibly distressed by it, i guess it`s one of those things that sometimes happens.

Also happened to me on an Easyjet inbound to Gatwick a couple of years back-plane not cleared the runway in time.

As others mentioned, we were almost down when we throttled up and climbed out very rapidly. Scary initially, but the flight deck came on almost straight away and explained the whole thing-normal procedure, not unusual, due to blocked runway etc. We did one turn around and came down fine.

It did take a few minutes for the adrenalin surge to calm down!

Happened to me too, Virgin flight to Orlando. Tired to land in a heavy storm - got quite low but suddenly pulled back up. Frightened me so much, I didn't think I would be able to get on the flight home. The storm must have been bad because we were then told we were being diverted to Tampa but a few minutes later, the storm had passed and we were headed back to Orlando and landed!!!

Two aborted landings and one aborted take-off.

The landings were with BA and BM, (domestic flights) and both times were caused by sudden rain squalls and severe gusts of wind, causing the aircraft the be pushed off course and over the adjacent grass, (as in Maz's case).

The aborted t/o happened on one of my eventful combi flights with KLM whilst departing Damascus. We were quite some distance into our t/o roll when the "anchors" came on. The aircraft slewed to one side slightly, came to a rather abrupt halt and all the lights went out.

We must have sat there for a good 3 or 4 minutes before power was restored and the aircraft returned to the terminal.

I'm still awaiting an explanation from the flight crew about that one[?][:?]:)

Had an aborted landing on Virgin heading into SFO a few years ago ... congestion on the runway! Heck, a 747 can really go when full throttle is on when just a few feet above the runway. Lots of very nervous people on board and some shock (though I was pretty cool [8D]) and it played havoc with the flight map. Captain came on after about 10 mins to explain - guess he was pretty busy until then. Applause when we finally landed.

Three aborted landings during my career - two into LHR and one into JFK.

Only on the JFK one did everyone turn around and look at me in shock. The Captain usually does a PA asap to let all the passengers know what's happening.

[:X]

Originally posted by Tinkerbelle
Three aborted landings during my career - two into LHR and one into JFK.

Only on the JFK one did everyone turn around and look at me in shock. The Captain usually does a PA asap to let all the passengers know what's happening.

[:X]

Without getting too personal Tinkerbelle [:I] how long would the career be - or more politely (sort of) how many landings have you made [B)].

What were the causes of the three?

Thanks

Phil

Flying for four years so roughly two landings every week - you can do the maths![i]

Maybe I've just been unlucky but i've 2 aborted landings in the last 6 months - both squeezyjet. 1 into Stansted (aborted due to freak wind!!) landed perfectly safely 5 mins later. Other into Edinburgh (aborted due to previous aircraft not vacating the runway quickly enough)
I do fly at least once/week so odds are probably higher.

I had three aborted landings in a week last month. Once in to Funchal, windshear, second into Tenerife, cabin not secure, and third into LGW, approach too fast. Funchal was the worst of the three, really bumpy, pax being sick...ewww

In 6 years of flying I have only ever had 2. One going into Sydney and the other going into Gatwick. The captain will always let you know what happened but not until he has done what he needs to do. Its quite scary even for the crew as we are much in the dark as you are.

Originally posted by slinky09
Had an aborted landing on Virgin heading into SFO a few years ago ... congestion on the runway! Heck, a 747 can really go when full throttle is on when just a few feet above the runway. Lots of very nervous people on board and some shock (though I was pretty cool [8D]) and it played havoc with the flight map. Captain came on after about 10 mins to explain - guess he was pretty busy until then. Applause when we finally landed.

I too had an aborted landing into SFO a few years ago..I think "missed the runway" was the laconic explantion. We weren't very low so there was puzzlement more than any panic.

I had two aborted landings on a Ryan air flight to Limoges. We got to within a few feet of the tarmac and then climbed rapidly. Most of the passengers around me didn't seem to notice and after a few minutes the captain came on saying there was mist and he couldn't see the runway[:0].
The second time we came in we flew low over fields for some time and then climbed out. We eventually had to divert to Poitiers[n] due to lack of fuel.
On the way to Poitiers I overheard the cabin crew talking about the botched landings using very disapproving language one was saying "I could have landed myself in that (the mist)"

I've had one in 20 years of flying, 10 flights per year on average. This was on VS, into BOS. Excerpt from my trip report:

"The advance weather for BOS was snow and freezing fog, confirmed visually when it eventually appeared through the low cloud. Visual contact was short-lived, however, as, at what appeared to be only a hundred foot or so from the ground, the captain applied full power and we rocketed skywards. Was slightly alarming, and with conditions looking so poor on the ground, I wondered if the airfield had just been closed or something. However, the captain came on to reassure us that there was no problem with our plane or the airport but that the plane in front had not cleared the runway fast enough. So round we went again to join the queue and landed around 15 min later."

Luke

Over the past fifteen years I have had 5 aborted landings first one in Tenerife north with Britannia, this was a scary one in fog eventually landed in Gran Canaria after two attempts.
Second one in Cardiff with Inter European Airways we had touched down but took straight back off I guess because he missed the touch zone.
The third was in Gatwick on a Transavia flight we had to abort and divert to L.H.R due to a incident on the runway with a tyre burst on landing of the Tri-Star in front of us, Also at the point of throttle up a section of the overhead ceiling panel fell down many of us thought this initially to be the reason for the aborted landing.
The forth one was a Bad flight to Bristol aborted due to poor visibility and eventually landed in Filton and was bused back to Bristol airport.
The final abort was last year at L.H.R with V.A we were over the runway lights with a clear view of the T5 building when we shot back up very quickly due to traffic on the runway. In all cases the pilots were very informative after the aborts but they generally wait until they are back in the holding pattern or well in to the go around before the tell you why your stomach just hit your mouth and the person next to you has turned green[:$]

I average about 12 flights per year

Oh my, they sound more common than I thought![:0] At least they are aborted and not crashes![y]

I have come in to LHR in the jump seat on a couple of occasions and the pilots both told me that more often than not the tower leaves the decision to land with the pilot as they can actually see whether or not the previous aircraft has cleared the runway. He said that pilots of course always err on the side of safety and that "going around" was not uncommon.

That said it has only ever happened once to me at Birmingham on a BA flight whch came in during a thunder storm and was being buffeted by the wind. I knew what was happeneing but many passengers went pale - and the captain simply told us that a previous aircraft had not cleared.

Only experienced it once flying into ORK from LHR with Aer Lingus a few years back - captain did warn us that he wouldn't know if he could land (due to attrocious weather) until we were over the runway.He couldn't- we roared off and ended up being diverted to SNN.My brother who was travelling with us (and who hates flying because he is scared witless) was sitting behind us looking ashen.Had a bit of a job getting him on the return flight too.Have landed on the grass with Alitalia (terrible weather conditions again, with lots of squealing noises from some of the passengers)which was a bit un-nerving (the squealing not the landing).

I'd rather have a go around then have been on this when it landed.....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 1256027173

All praise to Boeing who built a left landing gear that takes the full weight of the A/C and a twist!!

I had an interesting experience landing in Naples. We flew in on finals over the coast but it was clear that we would not make it as we were over the hangers! it was BA and he did a go around. Except that there are a range of mountains at the end of the runway. He had to climb and turn to the right to around them. He then came on the PA and said that due to winds etc he would try landing from the other end of the runway. Clearly not 100% confident he made it ok.

Originally posted by pinnocchio
I'd rather have a go around then have been on this when it landed.....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 1256027173

All praise to Boeing who built a left landing gear that takes the full weight of the A/C and a twist!!

That was a pretty common sight at the old Hong Kong airport.

Had an aborted landing on BA [n] a couple of years ago into LGW.
The reason given was the previous landing aircraft had reported debris on the runway.

More worrying was the aborted take off from Luton on Easyjet a few years back. The plan reached quite a speed before the brakes were slammed on. Reason given was due to a fire indication in one of the engines, luckily it was a faulty sensor.

Has anyone actually left the ground and come straight back into land. I think that would really freak me [:$]

-Steve

BA pilot told me that a VS Airbus took off from LHR and after a minute or so the electronic instruments failed and they had to return to the airport using the back up analogue instruments.

[:#]