From
www.theage.com.au
An international Qantas flight carrying 300 passengers was this morning forced to abort its landing 400 feet from the ground at Melbourne airport because of other planes on the runway.
The Boeing 747, flight QF94 from Los Angeles, was making its final descent when air traffic controllers requested its pilots to abort the landing and perform what's called a "go-around".
"Air traffic control asked the pilot to do a go-around as there was congested traffic on the runway, and so they did a go-around and landed on the second approach," a Qantas spokeswoman said.
"The pilot made two announcements to the passengers to advise what they were doing," she said.
The spokeswoman said there was nothing unusual about this occurrence.
"Many aircraft do a go-around as requested by air traffic control, so it's not an unusual circumstance.
"Air traffic control said there was congested traffic and they needed more time before QF94 came in.
"Go-arounds are very common. Go-arounds happen on an hourly and daily basis with all airlines. It's not an unsafe situation. It's all part of traffic management at the airport. It's not an incident," the spokeswoman said.
There is heightened sensitivity about aborted landings after revelations last week that pilots at the controls of a Qantas 767 with 200 people on board forgot to put its wheels down.
The Melbourne-to-Sydney flight was forced to climb back into the air after pilots were alerted by an audible cockpit warning that the undercarriage hadn't been lowered. The alarm sounded at 800 feet.
The pilots were interviewed about the incident lastFriday by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
The safety authority has labelled the underarriage blunder 'serious'.
It is getting a bit of a joke.