Go-arounds- how common?

[pettinger93]

Forgive a perhaps naive question: having flown lot as SLF over the years, (mostly around Europe, but sometimes further afield) I have never , until last night, experienced a 'go around' on landing. How frequent is this experience? Last night, arriving at Gatwick on an Emirates A380-800 in very windy and bumpy conditions, we went around from just short of the runway end. The flight crew managed to get in on the second attempt, but the landing was so hard that a number of panels in the cabin fell down. Probably all in a nights work for them, but it got my heart beating a bit faster.

[meleagertoo]

Forgive a perhaps naive question: having flown lot as SLF over the years, (mostly around Europe, but sometimes further afield) I have never , until last night, experienced a 'go around' on landing. How frequent is this experience? Last night, arriving at Gatwick on an Emirates A380-800 in very windy and bumpy conditions, we went around from just short of the runway end. The flight crew managed to get in on the second attempt, but the landing was so hard that a number of panels in the cabin fell down. Probably all in a nights work for them, but it got my heart beating a bit faster.

I'd guesstimate that I flew one go-around per year - if that. 900htrs per year, probably 400 sectors (Eu shorthaul). So very roughly on that anecdotal and completely unscientific example, say one in five hundred?

[DaveReidUK]

Forgive a perhaps naive question: having flown lot as SLF over the years, (mostly around Europe, but sometimes further afield) I have never , until last night, experienced a 'go around' on landing. How frequent is this experience? Last night, arriving at Gatwick on an Emirates A380-800 in very windy and bumpy conditions, we went around from just short of the runway end. The flight crew managed to get in on the second attempt, but the landing was so hard that a number of panels in the cabin fell down. Probably all in a nights work for them, but it got my heart beating a bit faster.

Roughly 1 in 200 arrivals at LGW go around - 699 in total last year.

[pettinger93]

Thank you, gentlemen. So nothing remarkable, then. (though quite an uncomfortable novelty for me!)

[Level bust]

Since I first flew in 1966 I have flown 1500 hours (560 flights) as a passenger and have only had 3 go-arounds. First was in a Herald into Teeside due fog, a Viscount into East Mids (never found out why) and a lightly loaded Monarch A320 trying to land at Luton in windy/gusty conditions.

Done quite a few on training flights, so it's the luck of the draw I guess!

[Chesty Morgan]

I did 7 in a week once.

[PAXboy]

In over 50 years as an enthusiastic Pax - I have never experienced one. Obviously I should have boarded any flight led by Chesty Morgan.:E

[Recidivist]

In 50 years of paxing, I had my first go around last year, going in to Darwin. We had to do a circuit while a RAAF flyover was happening (can't recall the occasion), and when we were cleared, the plane never seemed lined up properly. Pilot threw it away early and we lined up OK next time. It was a surprise to the SLF, but not not alarming at all.

Edit to add: As an aside, the successful landing was done with what must have been flaps max - I had never seen the flaps extended to that extent on a B738 before or since. Not sure what the purpose of that was, unless the pilot wanted to make sure we didn't have to go around again (fuel a bit low after the circuit and go around?).

[Atlas Shrugged]

So nothing remarkable, then. (though quite an uncomfortable novelty for me!)

Yep.

As a part of aviation, they are a non-event. Push the power up, and you've simply converted the approach into that part of flight that happens just after take off. They are not dangerous, nor are they in any way reportable. Just remember just why a go around is being done; it always happens because the option to continue has expired and they are ALWAYS the safest choice.

They can feel a lot more 'uncomfortable' or violent than they really are as they happen after a period of low power, speed and nose attitude. The average newspapers' description of passengers talking about a go around always sounds like they were in an F18...yet exactly the same performance an hour earlier at take off gets no comment.....because it was expected!

There's generally more going on aft of the cabin door than in the cockpit.

[alserire]

Was in the LGW No 1 lounge last night (17th) when the Emirates A380 landed. Beautiful thing to watch. The previous evening obviously not so much based on your experience!

Only had one in over 200 sectors, going into FLR. Short runway, windy day. Annoying more than worrying as it was the end of a long day and I just wanted to go to bed!

[Chesty Morgan]

In over 50 years as an enthusiastic Pax - I have never experienced one. Obviously I should have boarded any flight led by Chesty Morgan.:E
Only if you like Funchal. Well actually, anywhere but Funchal.

[pettinger93]

Re the A380 'go around' on Saturday: we had been thrown around a lot in cloud on the approach, and as we broke into the clear I was watching the approach using the fin camera on my seat-back screen. Rather wish I hadn't, as you could see we were approaching the runway 'crabbing' at a considerable angle, while lurching up and down and side to side,, so a go-around wasn't really surprising. Got even rougher while circling to try again, and from the very firm 2nd landing it was obvious that the pilot wanted to make it stick this time.

[Blues&twos]

Infrequent pax, I had a go-around coming into Stansted a few years ago at night. Nothing dramatic, nose up, power, away we went. Asked the cabin crew when we were getting off, but I assume the flight crew were having a laugh as they claimed they "saw a squirrel on the runway" (in the dark, some distance befire we'd reached the threshold).
Unless they meant the helicopter....

[Mr Mac]

Paxboy
I am the same, though flying baby/boy/man since 1960 and no go around to date. I have had some heavy and sporty landings when a go around may have been prudent though , and even some dodgy take offs into thunderstorms (are you listening BOAC / Malaysian / Delta / Air France / Tarom / Iran Air ) and those were the really notable ones when the stewardess / stewards apologized after they had stopped throwing up / praying !! I think Chesty Morgan maybe with Jet 2 out of Manchester, in which case there maybe chance yet for me, though I have yet to go to Funchal, but I have heard of its reputation. No offence Chesty.

Cheers
Mr Mac

[TempoTCu]

I have been flying as SLF for 30 years. Only had one bad experience.

SYD->BKK->LHR->CDG... on arrival to LHR had three missed approaches then had to divert to alternate which was Schiphol. Waited on the tarmac for 3 hours (wasn't allowed to deplane). Then flew back across the channel to LHR. First approach was a go-around. Nailed the second.

Missed the connection to Paris. Delayed in LHR for another 5 hours, then got a seat on another flight to CDG. Flew across the channel but by this time, the weather had travelled across the channel also. Executed two missed approached into CDG. Was told from the flight deck that if the third was a go-around, we'd be on our way back to London. Fortunately, we landed on the third attempt. Total travel time from SYD to CDG, 42 hours. Total go-arounds, 6. This was in the very early 90's and later we found out it was a 1 in 10 year storm. Haven't had a single missed approach ever since.

[Denti]

Roughly 1 in 200 arrivals at LGW go around - 699 in total last year.

Probably a tad higher frequency at LGW due to the extremely high number of movements on that single runway, not to mention the turbulences in short finals in certain wind situations.

That said, i used to have roughly one GA per year in the first 15 years of airline flying, None in the last 5 years. That break in trends might have been caused by a much higher focus on being stabilized and flying conservative approaches. Nearly had one the other way, quite heavy turbulences during approach, we had a few fun days of high winds, always a pleasure to fly that.

[Cymmon]

Just the one, on approach to ACE, after what seemed a perfect approach and 4 prior sectors from the Philippines the pilot went around.....
only other problem was INTO Manchester, Airtours MD-83 bouncing all over until a nice firm landing.....

[Espada III]

As an SLF I have had three GAs. First was into LGW from MAN when the cabin wan't secure (the trolley wasn't away in time); the second was Jet2 into TLV (captain mentioned an unstable approach) and the third was when MAN closed for snow when we were about 20 seconds from landing and off we went to BHX.

The first two suprised me, the last one didn't. I flew in from Larnaca and before taking off had already had a call from my secretary telling me I wouldn't be landing. Was surprised they even bothered to take off.

[DaveReidUK]

I flew in from Larnaca and before taking off had already had a call from my secretary telling me I wouldn't be landing. Was surprised they even bothered to take off.

Presumably the airline felt it would be better to have the aircraft 60 miles down the road in Birmingham, rather than 2,000 miles away in Cyprus.

[krismiler]

I’d probably do one about once a year, reasons vary from the aircraft ahead not vacating the runway in time to a wind sheer warning. Passengers will soon forget about a go around, they will never forget an accident that happened because the pilot should have aborted the landing but didn’t.

[Coochycool]

Apologies whilst I hijack this thread (oops, maybe not the best choice of words), but how many out there have experienced a rejected takeoff?

In maybe 400 flights, I once suffered the ignominy during what should have been a domestic flight in Tunisia. The 737 spooled upto V1, rotated, then promptly smacked back down hard and began to vibrate like hell under severe braking. I dont think I was alone in thinking we were crashing.

Those up front presumably knew they had a problem and were hoping it would disappear, we taxied back round and tried it all again with the same result!

Back to the terminal, and we finally got away at the third attempt after a 2 hour fix of some issue with the nose gear. Happy days :)

Cooch

[Steepclimb]

Not that common. As a GA pilot with skydivers yes a few times mostly my mistake.

But as a pax once only. Madrid on an already delayed flight. A go around. I swore realising I was going to miss my connection but realised I was scaring the lady beside me. I apologised explaining that most likely it was an aircraft slow to clear the runway. One of the pilots came on the rt and confirmed that so I looked good.

Anyway when I eventually met my friend who happened to be a flight attendant training to be a pilot. She told me that she had only one experience of a go around. Which surprised me. But it is rare and frankly no big deal.
If anything proof of the safety of airline flying.
​​​​​

[PAXboy]

I do sometimes feel rather cheated! I do hope to experience one before I close my log book. We could also branch the discussion into:

Have you experienced a Rejected Take Off (RTO)? These are even rarer and happen when some aspect of the aircraft is shown to not be quite right and the flight crew brake the aircraft before take off. This usually entails a slow taxi back down to the start of the runway and, sometimes, a further wait if in sunny climes and the brakes need longer to cool off.
I have not had one, although saw one once when seeing my grandmother off on a flight. Communicating with her later, she said, that she thought they always did that ... I recall it was JNB in the early 1970s and the craft was the magnificent Super VC-10.

[Mr Mac]

Paxboy
Have had two of those. One at JFK with LH A340, who aborted due to another A/C trying to cross active runway, and one at LHR with BA on 747 for same the same reason. Both taxied back and had breaks checked and time to cool and off we went again.
Cheers
Mr Mac

[ExGrunt]

but how many out there have experienced a rejected takeoff?

No GA, but 1 RTO in 300 flights. Just started the takeoff roll - big bang - power off - brakes on.

Happened at midnight in Cairo - so I thought: that is us stuffed for the night. But, in fairness to Egyptair they had us on a replacement AC and underway in just over an hour.

EG

[sunnybunny]

I had a rejected take off about 2 years ago from Calgary to LHR flight. BA dreamliner, trundling down the taxiway turns on to runway, power on and then power off and more trundling and stopped.

we sat for a couple of minutes then pilot came on and aplogised for rejecting take off because of instrument indicator problems (I think) which was the first I was aware of a problem. We were parked just off the runway while they sorted it out. After a few minutes whatever was the problem was fixed and we trundled back and took off.

The worrying thing was I could hear the stewardess behind us (I was in last row) and she was extremely worried asking her colleagues for reassurance. Got back safe so non event?

[Peter47]

I had two in one flight coming into LCY. In both cases the wind changed at the last moment and you cannot land at that airport with a tailwind. We diverted to STN and landed successfully.

A go around many years ago at Kai Tak was interesting. Visibility was too poor for the pilot to see the checker board but we got in a few minutes later over the harbour - I don't think that it sees many approaches. I was wondering for a while if we would divert to somewhere like Kaoshuing.

[Hotel Tango]

Although I had flown 10+ sectors prior, I began to log my passenger flights in 1963. Since then I have logged 2,187 flights, averaging just under 40 flights per annum. In all this time I experienced 1 aborted take off (at relatively low speed) in a Pan Am B747 in March 1971. It took until March 1999 before my first G/A, in a Delta B727 at Atlanta. The next was in April 2009, in a Brussels Airlines RJ-85 at Birmingham. The last was also at Birmingham in July 2017 in an Eurowings A320. All three G/As were due to preceding traffic not vacating the runway in time. So, 3 G/As in 2,187 flights = 0.137% of my total flights.

[DType]

Many GAs at the old Turnhouse,on the short runway with fog. Quite often in the Vanguard, which was scary in hindsight after the GA crash/stall attributed to instrument lag. After two or three GAs, they would divert to Prestwick and bus us back through the fog. FType would hear my midnight standby plane heading west, put out the light, and go to sleep.
Once, in the USoA, I was listening in to the comms between plane and tower as we headed down the runway after two RTOs, "Third time lucky, flight xxx!" We weren't. Hold door locking problem.

[Recidivist]

Last Sunday (I think, could have been Monday) I was at the Ibis Airport Hotel in Brisbane, AUS, idly watching aircraft movements out of the window, when I saw a plane throw away a landing and go around. Sizeable plane, couldn't pick but B787/777 sizeish, red tail with yellow swirls. Saw the plane land later and taxi past to go the the International Terminal, but didn't recognise the livery. A Chinese airline maybe. (Hotel windows were quite dirty, must rememeber to send a note to management).

No idea why the pilots threw away the landing, conditions seemed quite benign - plane had been on standard approach so should have been lined up?? They were quite close to the threshold, and only a couple of hundred feet above ground, so it was a surprise to see the GA. Anyway, wahtever the reason, it ended up uneventful, which is always a good outcome.

[Espada III]

I was once on a Lufthansa A346 and a couple of minutes after take off there was clearly something not quite right. Slight vibration, just odd. Anyway the pilot announced that the nose wheel doors hadn't closed so he was going to lower and raise the wheels a couple of times otherwise we would have to return. The attempt failed and after about an hour in the air we returned to FRA. The flight was only 3.5 hours so the plane was light and there was no issue with dumping fuel or a heavy landing.

Turned out there was a loose bolt, it was fixed quickly and we were airborne again within 45 minutes of landing. I have suffered worse delays without a technical issue.

The best bit was the guy near us who had gone to sleep with an eyemask on. When we returned to FRA, he woke up and oblivious to the announcements assumed we had landed at our destination..

[NLC1072]

I have had three go arounds as a passenger, two in Cork and one in Dublin. Both due to poor visibility and crosswinds, both in the last year where I only flew maybe 10 times.

[tow1709]

30 years of flying on average 6 times a year to somewhere on business, plus about 60 personal round trips so say about 500 sectors. Only ever one go-around - at Edinburgh on Easyjet on a very stormy night. I was hoping we might get diverted to Newcastle as the Toon were playing at home that evening, but no such luck and I had to go to my meeting after all.

[FZRA]

Yep.

As a part of aviation, they are a non-event. Push the power up, and you've simply converted the approach into that part of flight that happens just after take off. They are not dangerous, nor are they in any way reportable. Just remember just why a go around is being done; it always happens because the option to continue has expired and they are ALWAYS the safest choice.

They can feel a lot more 'uncomfortable' or violent than they really are as they happen after a period of low power, speed and nose attitude. The average newspapers' description of passengers talking about a go around always sounds like they were in an F18...yet exactly the same performance an hour earlier at take off gets no comment.....because it was expected!

There's generally more going on aft of the cabin door than in the cockpit.

Whilst I agree that passenger shouldn't be alarmed by a run-of-the-mill go-around, I would beg to differ that they are completely normal events - particularly the un-expected ones.

When was the last time on a sim check that you practiced a 2 engine go-around? We practice the single engine go-around time and again, until we can do it with our eyes closed. But I think that 2 engine go-arounds do have a history of catching people out. Two UK registered examples spring to mind, one in to Chambery and another in to Bournemouth, thankfully both recovered in the nick of time:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422eab5e5274a131700001f/3-2009_G-THOF.pdf
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f2a5e5274a131700042d/Boeing_737-33A__G-CELC_12-10.pdf

Not to mention the FlyDubai in Rostov which had a far more tragic ending.

A rhetorical question, but one that has been doing the rounds at our company recently; what is more dangerous, continuing or going around from an unstable approach when you were 5 knots too fast at the "gate"?

[RevMan2]

Close to 1600 flights, >4 million km, 3 go-arounds. QF SYDAKL 2 missed approaches due to minima, 3rd time lucky otherwise back to SYD (that was flying down for Dad's funeral...). LH FRASFO, aircraft on runway. NZ NSNAKL, ditto. Couple of diversions. All in all, a pretty quiet time. (Apart from the time someone sleepwalked and tried to open 3R in flight.....

[yellowtriumph]

Only one and quiet recently. Thai Airways A380 just about to land at Heathrow. We must have been very close to landing (night time), I don't know the technical term for it but the engines had gone very quiet and clearly we had pitched nose up (flaring?). Next there there was an almighty roar from the engines, tremendous sense of 'push back' into my seat and off we went back into the sky. About 30 seconds later the pilot came on the intercom and apologised saying the runway wasn't clear. All handled very professionally as you would have expected, no cause for concern from any of the passengers that I could see. Quite impressive actually to feel the power surge from next to nothing to being pushed back into the seat.

[KelvinD]

I watched an American Airlines 777 abandon his landing at Heathrow today. I had a grandstand seat as the aircraft was virtually above me and about 1,000 yards from touchdown. A nice, smooth increase in power, up with the wheels and a quite decent rate of climb up uo 3,000 ft. All very smooth and civilised and i didn't hear a single scream from the cabin!

[Bullethead]

G’day Guys,

I retired a couple of years ago after a military transport career followed by nearly thirty years of airline flying and amassed around 22,500 hours and 9000 flight sectors over a period of 43 years.

During that time I experienced less than 10 missed approaches due to various reasons, weather related, blocked runways, other aeroplanes on a parallel approach getting too close and once a fight, between passengers, broke out on our final approach. Some of those missed approaches resulted in diversions but the rest were followed by a subsequent approach and landing.

In a similar vein I have only experienced a handful of rejected takeoffs, less than five, one due to a passing flock of birds crossing the runway in front of us, lucky it was daytime, others due to technical reasons. None were caused by engine failure.

I experienced far more of both the above events during training sessions in the flight simulator which was certainly good preparation for the above.

Cheers,
BH.