Scary go-arounds

[Nicki Mks]

Has anyone got some really scary experiences with go-arounds? Of course, I don't mean going around before reaching decision height or being cut off on final, but very close ones.
I remember I was arriving in Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) in 1997. When we were maybe 5 feet from touch down, we were hit by a wind shear and had to abort. And it wasn't a normal go-around: the shear blew us to one side, and the left wingtip came closer than 10 feet to the ground... As I said, really scary!

Grtz,

Nicki

[mikecweb]

Never been in a plane with a go-around but i was watching a CRJ landing at Daytona when he all of the sudden went full throtle at about 10 feet and told tower he was going around. It was the pilots call not the tower. It was a clear day so don't know what was going on.

[PANC]

No personal experiences but a few day back in ANC planes were doing go-arounds on average 1 per half-hour due to hight winds 36-42knots later the evacuted the tower and closed the airport because of 95knot wind at the height of tower,and 65knot on grd level.
The outcome? 24 GA planes fliped wrecked,etc.
My neighbor,(Supervisor of Operations) said you just say the tie downs break and the plane was flipping!

[a78jumper]

Go Around

I was flying space available on a C-130 from London Gatwick to Canadian Forces Base in what was then Lahr, West Germany, on New Year's Eve 1988. The full 707 (luck of the draw, I got the Herc instead which was better in the long run)that left before us had diverted to Stuttgart because of heavy fog at Lahr, but we did two go arounds trying to find the darn runway. People people were getting pretty upset, and many had started to barf. The person next to me started and I remember handing him a copy of the London Times to puke into as they ran out of barf bags . The Herc being not the most comfortable plane, trooping seats, noise, smell etc had a lot of people upset, kids crying, but hey, it was free and beat paying $400 for a one way ticket to Strasbourg, France. The pilot ended up being John Whelan, classmate of mine from RMC and he had a party to go to in Lahr, and did not want to be spending New Years in Stuttgart airport about two hours away by bus. . We later lost two Hercs on approaches, one at Fort Wainwright , Alaska in Feb 89, and the infamous CFS Alert crash 400 miles from the North Pole in Nov 91.
________
Glass Pipe Pictures

[Nicki Mks]

Well a78jumper, I think that was even worse than my experience! Sorry about the lost Hercs, we also know what that is in Belgium: we lost one a couple of years ago with the entire Air Force Band aboard. However, that was probably due to pilot behavior, if you understand...

Grtz,

Nicki

[mirrodie]

my go around on AA MD-80 on LGA's runway 4 was amazing.

While on approach to runway 4 at LGA in Oct 2002, we did a go around with 20-30 feet to touchdown. I think we were even lower as I know we were level with the roof of a one story building when the plane suddenly took to the skies again.

What scared me for a split second was when I heard the engines spool up at the last minute. All I could think was something isn;t right nd there is water at the end of the runway.

But the whole experience was good. If you like, view this link. It has an embedded file of music.

http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/941244/4/

[aerpix]

I experienced one go-around so far, but nothing really scary. Was a Crossair A.320 flight from GVA to ZRH, and seconds before touch down the engines spooled up and we went around. The crew than informed that we were too close to the preceeding, something that happens now and then here in Zurich. The go-around added 15 minutes flying time to the 30 minutes flight (!) and I was probably the only passenger onboard enjoying the extra ride.

From my window I can watch go-arounds on a regular basis, about 5-7 times a week. Most are due to high cross winds, or proximity to the proceeding. Separation on finals is sometimes as little as 3 miles, and if the preceeding is dawdling to vacate the runway it may well happen that a plane has to go-around. All runway exits (3) are at the very end of runway 14, but at least they are high-speed exits.

Regards,
Peter

[AEagle40]

An American 727 flight to MIA gets my vote. I was about 14 and when we were getting ready to land, the engines flared up and we did a sharp turn/steep climb. Turns out that there was broken glass on the runway and the pilot saw it at the last minute, due to the reflection and pulled up. I think that 2-3 of the overhead bins came flying open due to that manuever.

[Msh744]

I have not been in any scary go-around situations, but last July at ORD, I was watching planes land from the terminal during my layover. An AA 738 was on short finals, and it soon retracted the gear and initiated a go-around. The only thing that I thought could have caused it to go around was the close proximimity (too close, as it looked) of a JAL 744 on finals. It was interesting to watch, but not too nerve-racking.

[Colin Parker]

I've had three go-arounds. The first time, was in a 744 when all 3 of our radios failed at 1000ft going into Heathrow on a busy morning with traffic on the runway. The captain decided to go-around. Anyway, it was a botched go-around where the relief F/O had to shout "SPEED!" from the back seat a couple of times as the speed bled off as we climbed out. (My head was amongst the circuit breakers trying to see what was wrong). Anyway, halfway down downwind the radios came back and we landed ok.

The second time was me in a control seat and we got the "GO-AROUND, WINDSHEAR AHEAD" warning, so we went around. Not very dramatic, but it was in the middle of a typhoon so was very rough.

The third time we got windshear in the flare, and since the engines were already at idle it took what felt likes ages for the engines to spool up. I thought they had failed!! Very scary for a split second there!

[Avianca 757]

I have personally not experienced one, but in SKMD you can see some scary ones (and SKMD is limited to 50 pax aircraft)...I remember watching a Satena Dornier 328 having a go around and having to make a REALLY steep climb and a turn with a really deep bank angle, as the topography of the zone is so hard....I cannot imagine the passengers.

I also saw a Tampa Cargo coming @ SKRG and doing a go around, it was not so scary, but it was nice to see such a plane (DC- doing such a maneuver...

[RJP]

Has anyone got some really scary experiences with go-arounds? Of course, I don't mean going around before reaching decision height or being cut off on final, but very close ones.

To avoid id'ing anyone I'll leave out type & exact locations;

I was once on the way into an East-African countrys capital (travelling in the back) in a heavy ac when we made a fairly unspectacular go-around (no visual contact before d/h). No problem so far. Alternate was another capital cities airport around 290 miles / 45 minutes away. About an hour & a quarter after the go-around we were still airborne & curiosity overtook laziness & went up front. We were on the approach to an airfield which was not our alternate & about 4~5 miles out. The operating crew were very interested in the FE's panel so I glanced at it & saw all the low-fuel-pressure captions illuminated & the totaliser read 2,000lbs

Straight through the back again & made sure the seatbelt was firmly fastened (as with that fuel load they were only gonna get 1 shot). We landed safely & as we rolled out I went forward again, just in time to see the centre tank guage flick over to zero & the totaliser change to 1800lbs.

I checked the computer generated nav/fuel log later & discovered that averaging consumption over the whole flight we landed with 7 minutes to go till it all went quiet.

[aerpix]

Interesting story. I guess the DC-10 would be quite a good glider, with nearby Lake Victoria probably a place to gently ditch, just in case the worst happened.

Regards,
Peter

[RJP]

Hi Peter,

Interesting story. I guess the DC-10 would be quite a good glider, with nearby Lake Victoria probably a place to gently ditch, just in case the worst happened.

Oooh, nearly a good guess Mind, I guess in that & other postings I probably left a few clues

There's no way we'd have made Lake Vic & I swim like a brick anyway

Check;

http://www.airdisaster.com/photos/das10/photo.shtml

for pictures of what happened to a DC-10 that did make it to Lake Vic.... To correct the info on there.... it didn't just 'overrun', the crew had trouble contacting the tower & when they did get through the weather report, which was preceded by a huge yawn (tower staff asleep?) referred to 'light rain'. What it didn't mention was that a few minutes before a torrential thunderstorm had stopped & there was water, in some places 2 inches deep, on the runway.

They weren't rescued by boat shortly afterwards either..... it was 51 minutes after they hit the water that the first boat arrived.

[aerpix]

Yup, I was rather joking with Lake Victoria . I was aware of the accident of that DC-10, this photo has gone around the world.

You might see it a bit narrow, though, as 51 minutes is 'shortly afterwards' in African terms .

Glad you made it to your diversion field. I was really curious what carrier/aircraft this was, but respect your intention not to reveal too much.

Regards,
Peter