From The West today (by GT):
Passengers held hands, whispered "I love you" and prayed when the second attempt by pilots of a Virgin Australia Boeing 737 to land at Perth Airport on January 3 ended abruptly with a roar of engines as go-around power was applied.
For soon-to-be-married couple Brian Cherry and Sue Oldfield, Flight 697 from Melbourne to Perth that required three attempts to land was the "worst flight of their lives".
On Tuesday, _The West Australian _revealed details of the freak weather conditions that caused chaos for controllers as they tried to get planes down safely.
The incident has prompted Virgin to review its fuel policy for Perth flights after Flight 697 was caught dangerously low on fuel.
"The turbulence was incredible and if you weren't strapped in you would have been on the ceiling," Mr Cherry said.
"On the second attempt the turbulence was so bad you couldn't focus visually with all the buffeting," Ms Oldfield said.
"Everything then went very quiet and there were just faint whispers of 'I love you'.
"Suddenly you realised what was important in life."
Unbeknown to the couple, their flight's fuel state was critical and the controllers and pilots in the same predicament were contemplating other options away from the Hills, including Rottnest and Gingin.
That predicament was wind gusts of more than 100km/h above 80m (altitude) and 60km/h on the runway with a significant crosswind on all runways. There was severe windshear off the Hills.
The freak winds - and turbulence - increased in strength about 9.20pm, 10 minutes before Flight 697 was due to land.
The pilot's first attempt was on the main north-to-south runway 21. It was aborted and the plane directed to a holding pattern.
About 10pm, Flight 697 was directed to a landing on runway 06, but it was forced to abort at 10.15pm.
At that time the Virgin captain advised controllers he only had fuel "for one more approach". The airline says there was enough for another 20 to 30 minutes of flying.
But the passengers were oblivious to the dramas unfolding.
"Understandably, we had no idea," Mr Cherry said. "However, the crew were so professional and calm and reassuring. There was cheering and clapping for them when we finally touched down."
