It’s incredibly common for aircraft to perform go-arounds when attempting to land, given that landing is often a manual process, and pilots are trained to err on the side of caution. Along those lines, a Lufthansa jumbo jet recently performed what can only be described as a rather memorable go around, which is now going viral.
Lufthansa Boeing 747 LAX go around goes viral
Airline Videos Live captures an incident that happened on Saturday, October 10, 2026, at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). It involves a Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 with the registration code D-ABYK, which was just completing its flight from Frankfurt (FRA).
The plane was cleared to land on runway 24R, the airport’s most northerly and shortest runway. As you can see, the approach looks pretty stable, though perhaps they came in with a bit too much speed, because the plane “floated” for a while.
Runway 24R at LAX is 8,926 feet long, which is plenty long for a 747 to land, but doesn’t necessarily leave that much buffer. You’ll see the signs with numbers along the side of the runway, and those represent the number of feet left on the runway, in thousands (so the “7” number means that there are 7,000 feet of runway left).
As you can see here, the plane touched down around one-third of the way down the runway, with just under 6,000 feet remaining. Clearly the pilots weren’t quite comfortable with that, so even though the rear wheels touched the runway, the pilots immediately decided to abort the landing.
The thing is, they pulled the nose back quite a bit and very quickly, and the tail came dangerously close to touching the runway. Clearly the plane was within feet of having a tail strike, and possibly even less than that. The plane then performed a go around, and landed without incident around 15 minutes later, once again on runway 24R.
This was a close call for a tail strike, probably not dangerous
My assumption would be that the pilots performed a go around because they were just worried they didn’t have enough runway left to stop in time (at least without overheating the brakes), which is fair enough. Of course it’s possible there was another reason as well — we don’t actually know.
I’d note that while this visually appears to have been very close to a tail strike, that doesn’t actually mean that any passengers were in danger. Planes can sustain some pretty nasty tail strikes without it posing a major risk to an aircraft.
In some situations, a tail strike may just require an inspection, and the plane can then stay in service, even if the plane eventually needs a new coat of paint. In other situations, a tail strike can cause long term structural damage, and potentially ground a plane for months.
For example, an Air France Airbus A350 had a pretty rough tail strike during a go around in Toronto (YYZ) in early 2024, and the plane ended up staying grounded for around six months before reentering service. Again, no one was injured or in danger, but that’s a costly situation.
Bottom line
A Lufthansa Boeing 747 had a pretty “exciting” go around at LAX. The plane touched down quite late, with only 6,000 feet of runway remaining, and the pilots decided to abort the landing at the last moment. They pulled up on the controls pretty sharply, putting the tail within a very small distance of making contact with the runway.
The plane landed at LAX around 15 minutes later, without incident. This certainly makes for quite the visual, though fortunately there’s nothing else to this, really.
What do you make of this Lufthansa Boeing 747 go around?
This was not a go around. It was a rejected landing as the main gear definitely was definitely on the runway.
Safety is no accident, crew training needs to be reviewed urgently, as this near incident is not acceptable from experienced qualified flight crew member.
It's hard to tell from the video where the AC actually planted the wheels trucks. The runway markings were so covered with rubber that the Touch Down Zone and Aiming Point basic gone. That said they were well past the Glide Slope antenna which is next to the Aiming Point ....Too far down the runway for a Heavy Good call, take a lap
"It’s incredibly common for aircraft to perform go-arounds when attempting to land"?!?!?! "Commercial airliners perform a go-around in about 0.39% of all approaches, or roughly once every 250 landings at major hub airports."... Not enough TOGOs. Too much Get-Home'itis!
Forget the accident, just how absolutely gorgeous is she. I've never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight, I've never seen you shine so bright.
Some balls are held for charity
And some for fancy dress
But when they're held for pleasure
They're the balls that I like best
My balls are always bouncing
To the left and to the right
It's my belief that my big balls
Should be held every night
Dude, I would've properly appreciated this under almost any other comment of mine or not mine, but i do a teary and romantic eulogy to the 747 and you respond with a verse about balls and balls and some more balls?
I wasn't entirely sure your comment was meant for this piece, as you put lyrics from Chris de Burgh's "Lady in Red" and I couldn't think of anything red about Lufthansa or the 747, so I, in an attempt at being jocular, put in lyrics from AC/DC's "Big Balls" from 1976. So you have my sincere apologies, as now I know that you were being heartfelt, which I didn't understand.
And, I have to...
I wasn't entirely sure your comment was meant for this piece, as you put lyrics from Chris de Burgh's "Lady in Red" and I couldn't think of anything red about Lufthansa or the 747, so I, in an attempt at being jocular, put in lyrics from AC/DC's "Big Balls" from 1976. So you have my sincere apologies, as now I know that you were being heartfelt, which I didn't understand.
And, I have to say, that your reply was great and made me laugh until I had tears. It was wonderfully written, so thank you for that.
Again, apologies - I would never poke fun of sincerity. Well, I certainly try not to; your comments here are always quite on point and additive and I appreciate them.
Well, got that out of its system. Personally, I love the 748. We usually fly it three or four trips a year in FC. We always sit in 3D,G. Side by side. No doors, who cares. We each can get out of our seats directly into the aisle. Service is wonderful. Meal service is excellent. And they make the best scrambled eggs and onions for breakfast. A shame they don't cater bagels.
When that plane...
Well, got that out of its system. Personally, I love the 748. We usually fly it three or four trips a year in FC. We always sit in 3D,G. Side by side. No doors, who cares. We each can get out of our seats directly into the aisle. Service is wonderful. Meal service is excellent. And they make the best scrambled eggs and onions for breakfast. A shame they don't cater bagels.
When that plane flies it's last, I will really be sad. Nothing like it. The 380 is big, but no class. I even flew a TWA 747-SP from JFK to LAX.
The flight deck crew are excellent, as are the FA's.
So, the 777-9 will be a long tube, like the 350. Boring.
You pilot the 748 or any plane long enough, you will have an abnormal landing. What made this pilot good, was he scraped no paint, and took it right back up into the sky, and then landed.
LAX is next to the ocean, with the runways running east/west perpendicular to the coast. There was a good breeze coming off of the ocean that day due to the remnants of hurricane Rachel, so I wonder if the pilots weren't expecting the added lift? This also highlights how the angle of the tail on the 747 nicely allows for the steep takeoff angle - I wonder if there's some hardware or software limit on...
LAX is next to the ocean, with the runways running east/west perpendicular to the coast. There was a good breeze coming off of the ocean that day due to the remnants of hurricane Rachel, so I wonder if the pilots weren't expecting the added lift? This also highlights how the angle of the tail on the 747 nicely allows for the steep takeoff angle - I wonder if there's some hardware or software limit on how sharply they can pull up when at ground level, to prevent tail strikes?
The (very short) video seems to show a stabilized approach but there is no indication as to the approach speed. Since ground effect comes into play at an altitude approximately equal to 1/2 the wingspan, possibly caused the jet to float. The jet was still airborne when I saw the touchdown zone markers go under the main gear. GO AROUND! When the TOGA is initiated, the deployed spoilers automatically stowed when the auto throttles activate....
The (very short) video seems to show a stabilized approach but there is no indication as to the approach speed. Since ground effect comes into play at an altitude approximately equal to 1/2 the wingspan, possibly caused the jet to float. The jet was still airborne when I saw the touchdown zone markers go under the main gear. GO AROUND! When the TOGA is initiated, the deployed spoilers automatically stowed when the auto throttles activate. The good news is, unlike 21 Air in Miami, this crew performed a flawless go around.
It doesn’t look that close and while perhaps out of the ordinary, was no threat to safety.
I'd seen another clip taken from north of the airfield, closer to ground level and it didn't look as close from that perspective.
But thanks for sharing it's still a fascinating clip.
any runway is problematic if you are too fast; the aircraft chewed up too much runway before it settled down.
cameras everywhere means something routine goes viral
Hey you're back!
Place wasn't the same without you...
Ironically what I refer to as the In' N' Out runway.
Lengthen the runways to 10,000 . Simple solution .
You have a real knack for distilling the solutions to all life's problems into simple, easy-to-do fixes.
Never change.
Not too bright aren't you.
Lengthen the runways to 1,000,000 . Simple solution .
100 times safer than your idea.
Raise the airport to 30,000 feet, and the plane won't have to land at all. Even simpler!
All hail the Queen. May she live forever.
*Long live the queen (of the skies)