Quick question for the aviation experts in here. I was on final approach into Vegas last Friday and right before we touched down, the pilot went full throttle, wheels up and took off. Kind of scared the crap out of me. He later came on the PA and said that there was some "traffic" on the runway and had to abort landing. We safely landed on our second attempt.
How frequent do these types of things happen? Does air traffic control really make these tight landings on a regular basis?
It's called going around, and it happens often enough, though Acey would be the best source of that. Sometimes the plane landing ahead doesn't clear the runway fast enough, so "go around" happens.
How frequent do these types of things happen? Does air traffic control really make these tight landings on a regular basis?
Thanks!
How frequently? At a busy airport like Vegas, probably a couple times a day depending on the day. A major airport like Vegas is run tight like that all day long. Air traffic control has it down to a science, and the fact that your plane had to go around was indeed most likely the fault of the guy in front taking his sweet time vacating the runway. It's kinda scary if you're not expecting it, but tower is waiting as long as safely possible before sending your plane around hoping that the guy can vacate in time.
Calgary doesn't seem like a really busy airport, but some people don't realize that it was way over-capacity and a world class example of ATC moving a lot of traffic with 2 crossing runways and erratic winds thanks to the mountains. Go arounds happened all the time when planes would turn into a chinook on final approach and all of a sudden they're not moving at all relative to the guy landing on the crossing runway. It's like an impossible video game.
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Video example from Toronto of how close they're willing to cut it. There's a plane on his takeoff roll and he hasn't lifted off yet. Still perfectly legal. Potentially high pucker factor for the passengers, ATC sounds merely slightly disappointed it didn't work out.
Looks like our local company Kenn Borek Air hit the news again with another south pole rescue. Good to see them keep getting these tough to get to missions. They seem to be the experts at getting these done.
Full story in the link. http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/21/health...ion/index.html
