This is a situation I witnessed at BHX today:
A 737 is on short final, a Dash-8 is at 4 miles from touchdown at minimum safe speed, a CRJ is at the hold waiting to take off.
Tower asks the CRJ if he is ready for immediate take-off and advises him landing traffic is at 4 miles. The CRJ replies he is ready for immediate.
Tower then tells the CRJ to line-up and wait after the landing 737.
The 737 lands, meanwhile the CRJ is lining up and the tower advises the Dash-8 to expect clearance “over the numbers”. The Dash-8 is now at about 2 miles.
After a few moments the tower clears the CRJ for take-off, a few moments later the 737 reports clear of the runway. Meanwhile the Dash-8 is getting closer.
The CRJ is still sitting at the end of the runway, only just beginning to roll. The landing Dash-8 is at less than 100 feet. The tower tells the Dash-8 to “go around, I say again go around, break right as soon as possible”.
The CRJ continues to roll and takes-off. The dash-8 is going around but still not turning right. Things are getting scary. The tower tells the Dash-8 to “begin your right turn NOW”. Meanwhile the CRJ says to the tower in broken english “we switch to the departure frequency now, yes?”. The CRJ is ordered to remain on frequency and stop climb at 2500 feet. The CRJ replies “we are already passing 2300 feet”.
Eventually the situation sorts itself out and a very angry Dash-8 pilot lands a few minutes later.
It sounded to me like the controller completely lost control of the situation and might not have even been watching the runway, because he left the go-around order so late. I could not believe my eyes and ears when I watched/heard all this unfold. Is this kind of thing common? Who do you think was at fault here? The tower for trying to squeeze the CRJ in? Or the CRJ for not being ready as he said he was? The thing that confused me most is that the field wasn’t even that busy. The CRJ was the only aircraft waiting to depart.
By: BHXlocal - 9th September 2006 at 13:01
Now that is interesting! Out of all my visits to BHX over the years, I have never seen a go-around! Maybe its the luck of myself 😀
As for the ATC bit, I’ve been fortunate to actually be allowed up into the tower and see how it works and the kind of views it has. There are a minimum of 3 people in the tower at anyone time me thinks, well when I was there anyway.
Maybe they didn’t expect the 737 that landed to exit so slowly?
By: A225HVY - 9th September 2006 at 10:36
No probelmo and welcome to the forum 😀
A225HVY
By: BHXfan - 9th September 2006 at 10:34
Lol it’s fine. If I was someone from the press it would have been a ‘Boeing A380’ landing and a ‘Canadair 747’ taking off, and there’d probably be reports of someone seeing ‘flames’ somewhere too. lol.
By: A225HVY - 9th September 2006 at 10:07
A trawl from the press? What?
I don’t know what that means or if you’re joking, but I’m just a regular aviation enthusiast. If this kind of situation is abnormal maybe somebody should tell the press though yeah. It was very scary to watch, definitely the lowest go-around I’ve ever watched and it sounded like the tower controller lost it judging from the way he was speaking.
Sorry if my reply upset you, I wasn’t joking, but seeing as you only just joined the forum and this was your first post it is sometimes seen as a trawl by Journo types to illicit information from non accredited sources….
As an ex Air Trafficker albeit Ex Mil I apologise for any offence caused to you 😉
A225HVY
By: Deano - 9th September 2006 at 09:23
But I suppose you have to consider his position. Would he have known what kind of go-around procedure to follow in that situation? Would he have known which way it was safe to turn? Because i’m pretty sure the normal procedure is to climb straight ahead. Maybe he thought it would be safer to continue, rather than risk flying into the path of the CRJ?
Of course he would have done, and of course he would have done, with respect I do think you are dressing this up to be something it is not, the pilot follows the missed approach procedure on the ILS where they fly to the missed approach point which is a designated point in the procedure, generally this involves passing the MAP then a climb straight ahead on the procedure, it could be runway heading to 2500ft etc, without the runway in use I can’t ascertain this, but a go around at a very low altitude would “generally” be to follow ATC until he can take up the procedure
By: Deano - 9th September 2006 at 09:18
The real issue here is that the Dash did not turn right as instructed, generally late landing clearances are normal, rarely they result in a go around, whilst it may have been a “dodgy” event to the untrained eye generally this sort of thing is a non event, and maybe someone ought to tell the press? tell me you are joking right? :rolleyes:
By: BHXfan - 9th September 2006 at 09:15
Well I did wonder why the Dash-8 pilot didn’t initiate the go-around himself. But I suppose you have to consider his position. Would he have known what kind of go-around procedure to follow in that situation? Would he have known which way it was safe to turn? Because i’m pretty sure the normal procedure is to climb straight ahead. Maybe he thought it would be safer to continue, rather than risk flying into the path of the CRJ?
By: Short finals - 9th September 2006 at 08:59
Don’t forget that the Dash-8 crew could see what was happening and could, if they deemed it appropriate, have initiated a go-around anyway, even if the tower had not so instructed.
By: BHXfan - 9th September 2006 at 08:58
A trawl from the press? What?
I don’t know what that means or if you’re joking, but I’m just a regular aviation enthusiast. If this kind of situation is abnormal maybe somebody should tell the press though yeah. It was very scary to watch, definitely the lowest go-around I’ve ever watched and it sounded like the tower controller lost it judging from the way he was speaking.
By: A225HVY - 9th September 2006 at 08:25
This sounds like a trawl from the press boys!! 😮
Or the CRJ wasn’t used to slick procedures in getting traffic airbourne between landing aircraft…….
A225HVY
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September 9, 2006 at 2:53 am