LH A320 Rough Landing @ Hamburg

[Chris Scott]

When to go-around?

Quote from Bis47:
Sorry if I seem to be so sure about the chain of events :
- allowing drift down wind
- overcorrection upwind with a real turn
- downwind turn during the flare to keep on the centerline
- touching ground with low wing downwind, and a drift downwind as well.
[Unquote]

I would go one further. The runway is about 45 metres wide. At about 100ft on the approach in a strong crosswind, a large jet needs to be tracking parallel to, and within about 10 metres of, the extended centreline. If not, a go-around should be made. As the height reduces, the tolerance should reduce to about 5 metres before and during the flare.


Editing PS:
Reviewing the video again, the incident aircraft appears to have been on the centreline at 100ft, and tracking correctly. Just before 50ft, an apparent increase in crosswind-component causes it to start moving downwind. At about 50ft, right bank is applied to track the aircraft back to the centreline, and the resulting heading represents a much larger deviation from the runway bearing than before. This is the situation at main-gear touchdown (left gear only) on the runway centreline...
I think Bis47 might agree that a go-around should have been initiated at about 50ft, given that the approach had continued that far.