I can't believe all the fuss about a go-around! Heathrow Director was right (05 Apr 02) We were rather amused at KK by the newspaper report, particularly, "We drew our breath in" and "I was waiting for the explosion."
Of course it wouldn't be worth putting in the papers if the headline was more reflective of the real world, "Nothing unusual happened at the Airport today!" As most of you know, go arounds are initiated by ATC or the pilots for safety reasons, so it can be irritating, but understandable, when the general public experience what they think is near disaster! Almost as irritating as when you tell someone what you do and you know that the next thing they will say to you is, "Oh, that's a stressful job isn't it?" or "Are you moving to that new place at Southampton soon?". I imagine, (appreciating different opinions!), that it would be quite hard to collide a couple of aircraft what with TCAS and the runway incursion systems we have these days. (Unless you were that way inclined of course!)
Take it easy!
