Any Pilots Out There That Can Tell Me What the F Happened?

[BayMoWe335]

So we are landing on a 737 and there is lightning, winds, and a storm going on. The captain is giving us muffled updates and we finally decide to land after delaying about 30 minutes in the air.

I swear, we are literally 10 feet from landing (I can see the stripes on the runway and had the sensation that we were about to land) and he all the sudden pulls back up and climbs back in the air. It was like a fake landing.

Why would he pull back up? He got on the intercom and said he got word he needed to land at a different runway due to the storm. BS! We were literally ABOUT to land (not more than 10 feet) and he decides at the last possible second he needs to pull up just to land on a different runway? I can hardly believe that.

So we circle around another 10 minutes and land with no issue.

I really think one of 2 things:

1) No Landing gear and got word at the last second
2) Wrong pitch and felt like the landing was going to be too hard/dangerous and decided to try again.

Anyone have something similar happen and can you shed light on what happened here?

Thanks!

[Haus_07]

I've been an aircraft mechanic for the last 15 years of my life, and most of my family has worked for united airlines most of their lives (father and step-father are both retired captains for united). My father has owned several single engine aircraft, and I've been up with him quite a bit. Sounds like the pilot was running out of enough safe distance to stop the aircraft once he got it on the ground, and in wet conditions, you need even more runway length to get the aircraft safely stopped. So he hit the throttles and came around for another attempt. Could have had some bad cross-winds at the last minute, or a ton of other things that changed his mind about putting the plane down at that particular moment. I highly, HIGHLY doubt he did not have his landing gear down. There would have been multiple alarms going off for quite some time before landing. Touch and goes are not that rare, especially in bad weather. Hope this helps!!

[WinoGregorio]

...or traffic on the runway...

[alexckma]

Originally Posted by BayMoWe335

So we are landing on a 737 and there is lightning, winds, and a storm going on. The captain is giving us muffled updates and we finally decide to land after delaying about 30 minutes in the air.

I swear, we are literally 10 feet from landing (I can see the stripes on the runway and had the sensation that we were about to land) and he all the sudden pulls back up and climbs back in the air. It was like a fake landing.

Why would he pull back up? He got on the intercom and said he got word he needed to land at a different runway due to the storm. BS! We were literally ABOUT to land (not more than 10 feet) and he decides at the last possible second he needs to pull up just to land on a different runway? I can hardly believe that.

So we circle around another 10 minutes and land with no issue.

I really think one of 2 things:

1) No Landing gear and got word at the last second
2) Wrong pitch and felt like the landing was going to be too hard/dangerous and decided to try again.

Anyone have something similar happen and can you shed light on what happened here?

Thanks!

dangerous landing, or too much cross wind, a maladjusted landing can be extremely dangerous. It's only BS because the pilot does not feel like he wants to explain it to the passengers

Better safe than sorry

[BayMoWe335]

So this approach was 100% safe (or much safer than the alternative)? What could putting a plane down in bad conditions mean? Just a rough landing or actually crashing?

Last question...is there any danger in "taking off" again when you're so close to landing? It just felt very weird, but I suppose it's just like a normal take off?

[BayMoWe335]

And could this particular pilot have been somewhat inexperienced in flying during bad weather?

Maybe this was a yawner for pilots, but for passengers, it feels really crazy to do something like this because it's not "normal." In a more rational state of mind, I think a lot more would have to happen before the plane was in danger of crashing.

[Haus_07]

I don't know about hard landings from the pilots point of view, but from an aircraft manufacture's point of view, there are criteria for hard landings. If a plane meets the hard landing criteria, it has to have a specific inspection completed to insure there was no structural damage to the landing gear, trunion beams, and other major components. I doubt though that the pilot was thinking about the extra inspection. Much safer to abort a landing that's not looking so good, than risk the lives of the passengers and crew onboard. No danger in taking off again. Much more room to climb out again than there is once you touch down and try to slow that monster down in crappy weather!!

[plokij]

it's exactly what Haus is saying. it happens at airports with "smaller" runways like my local one in SD (which is located in the highly populated downtown area). if they don't have enough room to stop, or are coming in crooked, coupled with wet tarmac, all hell can break loose in a metropolis.

[Haus_07]

You weren't in any danger of crashing, bro. It's not like a touch and go was the pilots last ditch effort to avoid a major disaster. Actually, as soon as he probably even had a the slightest notion that the on-going landing might be just the slightest bit unsafe, he nailed the throttles, and pulled the nose up. Pilots spend countless hours doing just what he did; touch and go's. May have seemed out of place to you, but it was a textbook maneuver for him, which he has practiced many, many times. Second nature even.

[trekker]

From an airline pilot point of view, we don't prefer to do a go-around (mis approach) unless we really have to. The work load and stress level goes up very quickly especially if there is weather around. I am sure the pilots on your flight had their reason for it. There are heaps of reason for a go around, windshear, wind exceeding limits, unstablised approach, high on profile, you name it. It's really hard to tell what happened if you are not sitting in the cockpit. I think the most important thing is now u are safe on the ground. You really don't want to sit in a plane with some cowboy pilots trying to land in an unsafe condition. As what he told you through the announcement, he might not be lying to you, maybe he just didn't have the time to tell you the whole story. As I mentioned before, during a go around is a very stressful and busy time for us, sometimes we may not even have the time or spare mental capacity to tell the passengers what's going on. We do try, but the priority is to land the plane safely first. You just gotta trust the pilots sometimes.

[trekker]

As for your thought of not having the gear down, you were on a B737 there are warnnings and indications to prevent it from happening, not saying it never happens but the possibility of the pilots trying the land with the damn annoying warning going on and on is very minimal. as a matter of fact, you can actually tell if the gear is down or not since the gear generate quite a bit of noice and it normally gives you a double "ding" on the seatbelt sign.

[Haus_07]

Oops. Go around was what I was referring to/meant, not touch and go. My bad!! Excellent explanation, trekker!!

[Taipei-TT]

Go arounds happen all the time for a variety of reasons...most of which do not mean you were in imminent danger...just staying on the side of caution.

I was on an a320 landing in Tainan (small runway) in a powerful cross wind where even sitting in the back you could see the crab approach the pilot needed to keep flying straight. We drifted down the runway for a long time, the right landing gear touched down, and then the pilot hit TOGA (take off go around) and we went back up. He had touched down too far down the runway to make a safe stop. I have a private pilot's license but never flown a jet, so even though I have a vague idea of what's going on..I agree it can be unnerving sitting in the back and not knowing why things are happening. Trekker is right...you have put your life in the hands of the guys up front..trust them. After all, they are in the same boat as you!

Still safer than driving with all the untrained and distracter drivers that populate the streets here!


For fun Haus...post this on airliners.net and watch them go crazy on you for being a wuss!

[M40i4me]

Maybe he was trying to avoid a squirrel.

[Wild Squid]

Quit yo bitchin, just be glad you're alive!

[John 070]

This is a bit OT, eh? Just a little. Oh yeah, nevermind, the flight attendant had a bra with a BMW logo that the OP caught a glimpse of when she was pouring his sprite.

[B-737]

At 10 feet seeing stripes prob not traffic related. I'll put ten bucks that it was an aircraft generated windshear alert. Or possibly, although remote, was going to be a long landing.

As an aside, Remember this when ur buying ur $150 airfare that the guys upfront are trained skilled professionals. Airline companies, marketing and corporate might want you thinking it's like riding the bus but it's serious business. This is usually my brief interjection when a passenger starts complaining to me, soap box off

[John 070]

Originally Posted by B-737

buying ur $150 airfare

I don't think those types of airfares exist anymore. All the airlines have to do is charge $25 per bag and $35 for the next, and look at how uncivilized it gets with bags of all shapes and sizes being carried-on. Overheads are filled 3 to 4 aisles ahead of the passengers' seats. The whole industry is a shame because you sure know the staff and pilots aren't getting rich, look at them. Not a job that most of us would envy.

[mithiral67]

i feel if you went and watched top gun, you could find several answers.

[ChasVS]

BMW involved in this wasted thread in anyway?

[MorpheIS]

Ditto on trekker's post. In the last 15 years I've been a pilot, I've managed to chalk up a few go-arounds. It could be for a wide variety of reasons - in my case I've had one incident where ground control had an aircraft that was just clearing the active runway. In most other situations, my go-arounds were due to cross-winds that exceeded my comfort level.

Go-arounds are not inherently dangerous, but as Trekker mentioned, there's a lot going on in the cockpit right after an aborted landing (full throttle, raising of landing gear, adjustment of flaps, etc), all of which is, of course, a priority over communicating to the passengers at that moment.

Originally Posted by trekker

From an airline pilot point of view, we don't prefer to do a go-around (mis approach) unless we really have to. The work load and stress level goes up very quickly especially if there is weather around. I am sure the pilots on your flight had their reason for it. There are heaps of reason for a go around, windshear, wind exceeding limits, unstablised approach, high on profile, you name it. It's really hard to tell what happened if you are not sitting in the cockpit. I think the most important thing is now u are safe on the ground. You really don't want to sit in a plane with some cowboy pilots trying to land in an unsafe condition. As what he told you through the announcement, he might not be lying to you, maybe he just didn't have the time to tell you the whole story. As I mentioned before, during a go around is a very stressful and busy time for us, sometimes we may not even have the time or spare mental capacity to tell the passengers what's going on. We do try, but the priority is to land the plane safely first. You just gotta trust the pilots sometimes.

[BayMoWe335]

My bad for the wrong forum.

Thanks for the responses fellas.