Airberlin will be shutting down by October 28, though they operated their last longhaul flight on October 15, as their A330s are being repossessed. So airberlin’s last longhaul flights landed in Dusseldorf on Monday morning (yesterday), October 16.
Well, it looks like the last longhaul airberlin flight to land back at Dusseldorf, AB7001, had an interesting go around, to say the least. Here’s a video of the go around:
And here’s a video with a view from the terminal, where you can see that passengers are terrified, given the angle (I would be too if I were in the terminal, as it looks like the plane is coming straight for it):
So was this a necessary go around executed in the normal way, or just airberlin pilots having some fun on their last day of work? The jury is still out, it seems.
The plane appears to be too high on the approach, so the pilots execute a go around, which in and of itself isn’t unusual. However, as you can see, the go around comes in the form of a sharp bank to the left, in a way I’ve never seen a go around with a full plane happen before (this go around almost looks like something you’d see at an airshow).
While this isn’t the standard go around procedure for the airport, the company claims that air traffic control gave the plane permission to turn left in the case of an aborted landing (even if that deviates from the normal go around procedure).
However, according to thelocal.de, the German federal aviation authority is looking into the incident, and airberlin says they “full support the LBA in its work” (for as long as they’re around, which isn’t very long).
Either way, the pilots put on a heck of a show (especially for airline employees and air traffic controllers), though clearly the maneuver scared some.
What we don’t know is if the go around was actually necessary (or if the pilots just wanted to have some fun on their last day of work), or if the way in which they executed the go around was truly the “standard” way to do it.
What do you make of airberlin’s final longhaul go around?
(Tip of the hat to View from the Wing)
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