Originally Posted by
Cralis
With regards the “if in doubt, go around.” quote, when a pilot does initiate a go-around, is there a chance of bad reprocusions from the airline?
I'm guessing all go-around are costly and investigated. So are pilots sometimes "worried" about it and err on the opposite side of caution?
At least one of Australia's major airlines has a fuel policy that has their aircraft arriving with such a small amount of fuel that if they were to go-around, it would put them into an emergency situation .
This airline has also tried in the past to bully their Captains into only taking the amount of fuel that the company has planned for them and to not carry any additional discretionary fuel.
Therefore, the "safe" course of action (executing a go-around) could ultimately lead to an even more "unsafe" situation (emergency fuel state).
The airlines can't have it both ways and thankfully most Captains are wise enough to carry additional fuel, despite the pressure applied by their company.
Unfortunately, some Captains do take only the flight planned fuel quantity and it is those Captains who will be forced into making an unpleasant choice as to which situation they want to be more accountable for. Continue the unstable approach and face disciplinary action, or execute a go-around and potentially run out of fuel.