US Airways incident LGW 6/11
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Join Date: Mar 2001
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AMF, since vascani's post repeats verbatim my original of several weeks ago, I assume this thread has now been merged with another from elsewhere. I agree it should say so in the header.
An immediate call by the ATCO for a go around would, to me, seem that it was on a very short final. Had it been 3 miles or more I would have thought that the first call would have been along the lines of, "confirm gear down and locked"? On the other hand I have watched many landings in my old life and many a time I've witnessed relatively "late" deployment of the u/c. I say "late" because that's how it appears when watching a heavy on final. In actual fact a heavy's distance to the threshold can be quite deceptive and I honestly wonder if this was a relatively inexperienced ATCO over reacting. Wasn't a lady by any chance? You know what they're like with distances 
Join Date: Nov 2005
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Full facts for all interested.
Ac was first visual from VCR at 3nm final ( due cloud/vis )
Gear observed not to be down at 2nm
Ac asked to confirm if three greens showing
Crew replied Yes
Ac told that visually gear was up and told to go around if this was the case
Gear then observed extending and appeared fully down at 150 - 200 feet AGL
Ac reported "gear down and locked" at this stage
Ac then cleared to land
Not a lady ( tho I don\'t see what that\'s got to do with anything ) and not inexperienced. TWR radar shows distances to touchdown as well as the Mk 1 eyeball method. Those above are therefore likely to be accurate +/- half a nm
Ac was first visual from VCR at 3nm final ( due cloud/vis )
Gear observed not to be down at 2nm
Ac asked to confirm if three greens showing
Crew replied Yes
Ac told that visually gear was up and told to go around if this was the case
Gear then observed extending and appeared fully down at 150 - 200 feet AGL
Ac reported "gear down and locked" at this stage
Ac then cleared to land
Not a lady ( tho I don\'t see what that\'s got to do with anything ) and not inexperienced. TWR radar shows distances to touchdown as well as the Mk 1 eyeball method. Those above are therefore likely to be accurate +/- half a nm
The facts, as presented by vespasia, confirms my first sentence. The rest was pure personal observation & speculation (in absence of any facts at that time). The lady bit was a little tongue-in-cheek (hence the little 'evil' smiley). Anyway, thanks vespasia for filling in the details. Very interesting indeed and now we know why the NTSB are involved.
