How Common Are Airplane Go Arounds, And What Causes Them?

Last was CR7 at PHX several months ago. We were wobbly and running out of runway, probably about 50ft up. A lot of the passengers were terrified, and while I knew what was going on, the captain didn’t make any sort of announcement, which I found to be very unprofessional.

Lots of missed connections with the extra 20 minutes to land and the 25 minute MCT at PHX.

So I guess my single go-around in over 400 flights is par for the course. That one was in a DC3 though, behind an apparently very slow Fokker 50. I didn't mind the extra 10 minutes of tooling around in the Dak!

They're not all that common but do happen. I fly 2-4 flights a week and maybe once a year on average experience a go around. Most of the time it's due to a/c spacing issues. Many years ago my plane had a good around because of a deer running on the runway at MCI.

Aviate, navigate THEN communicate, I understand it can be distressing as a passenger but the flight crew were doing the right thing.
Even after the intiial go-around manouver there can be a lot happening on the flight deck with 'cleaning up the aircraft' for PF and a fair bit of additional radio work for PM.

CB

The pilots' first priority is to fly the plane safely. Pilots learn to "aviate, navigate, communicate", in that order - and communicate means communicate with ground control. The very last priority is communicating with passengers.

My one go-round was in a small regional jet landing somewhere in Europe, probably Munich. The pilots didn't say anything until many minutes afterwards, presumably because they were busy with whatever they needed to do as a consequence of the change in course. Finally they explained that the plane in front of us was moving too slowly and therefore we were asked to go round.

An interesting one… a delta CRJ-900 from LGA to YUL on Feb 17th approx one hour prior to the same aircraft flipping upside down at YYZ.

Weather in YUL was abysmally snowy and gusty (like YYZ) but no explanation was given to us at all. Landed without incident but certainly not a smooth one. Found out what happened at YYZ while in the cab home.

If someone does plane spotting, they will see hundreds of landings in a row without a go around.

I have not had a go around that I noticed for many years. I never or almost never sleep through a landing. The last I can remember was about 15 years ago when on a Delta flight at a hub.

I was aboard an earlier flight of the United 767 that rammed into the WTC on 9/11 except it was about a year before. I have also been on flights that had to land before the destination for refueling.

Landing at GVA on U2 a few years ago we went round from just above the runway, and the announcement a few minutes later from "This is Captain..." said "I thought we were too far down the runway for it to be safe to land".
I *think* that was a different voice from the earlier announcements (which would be from Pilot Flying?)

Would it be a reasonable deduction that the FO was flying and the Captain took control at the moment of Go Around?

They're particularly frustrating if you have airport pickups down to a science.

I was recently on an EK A380 into DXB that had to go around because the KLM that just landed didn’t clear out of the runway quickly enough. Such go arounds are pretty common.

I guess I've been lucky, but only experienced 2 of them in all of my flying. One was due to horrible weather at JFK while coming in on Swiss. Worst turbulence I've ever experienced, and then we diverted to Montreal. The other was on VA into Melbourne - pilots never made an announcement as to why and the lady next to me joked that it must be a new pilot who was embarrassed with his initial performance.

Many moons ago at JFK. Just about to touch down like the Southwest flight and then we did a go around. Pilot stated there was a plane on the runway. Rather apologetic about the extra 20 minutes it would take just to be able to try to land again.

It would typically be the Pilot Monitoring who makes announcements, while the Pilot Flying, well... flies. If the captain's voice was not the voice you heard through most of the flight, then it's most likely that the captain was Pilot Flying.

I’ve had two. First one in Johannesburg in a thunderstorm, the second in Cork where the wind was howling and we came in so sideways, I was looking directly down the runway from my window seat. Not fun.

The last thing anyone wants after a bumpy, skittish approach in dirty weather is to go around and live it all again, but better safe than sorry!

There’s quite a lot happening up-front during a go-around in congested airspace, so I don’t expect an explanation. I can totally understand why some pax might find it alarming, though.

It is about time to use AI in airport traffic control for landing, take off and on the ground aircraft movements .

I don’t know how your comment about the United 767 has anything to do with the topic being discussed. I also think using the word “rammed” to describe what happened that day is callous and inappropriate.

I had way more than my share of go-arounds. In my limited experience they were most often on LH. They seem to have inviolate rules pertaining to having a fully clear runway. I assume that most airports learn not to mess with LH rules.

I've had three. One was into TUS on a beautiful clear night except for a small thunderstorm that passed over the airport on approach. Another was approaching an airport with East-West runaways and a heck of wind out of the North on a snowy night. The other was flying into Belize. First go around was when the thunderstorm hit the airport. The second was when we needed to pull up and approach from the opposite direction: the wind direction shifted after the storm blew through.

We live in Harrow, NW London, where we see a lot of traffic from Heathrow heading in and out (as well as loads of smaller business jets and a satisfying number of huge military planes coming in wonderfully low on final approach to RAF Northolt! US state visits to the UK are always entertaining!). The best thing though, is we're exactly under the flight path for go-arounds from LHR when theyre landing in the right direction. Seeing and hearing the huge 747s and A380s roaring over at 1 or 2000ft has always been a highlight of any week, and there's normally at least one a week just when I'm at home, which is not at all during the working day. They are remarkably common.

But better than the 'alternative' anytime, even with the misconns.... dare I say ..

I went 25 years between go-arounds then had 3 in 1 year and now it's been 7 years since the last one...

Amongst other requirements for instrument landing:

If a pilot is unable to establish visual reference with the runway by the time they reach 1000 feet, they should execute a missed approach.

Simple as that for the case in the article. Decision Height.

I was on a flight last week that encountered turbulence on final approach to Chicago O'Hare. We touched down, but I think the pilot was unhappy with things and immediately took off again. The next approach was still a handful, but the crew, being forewarned, landed the plane without incident.