WOW, near miss Heathrow!!!!!

[chilistrucker]

I'm sat st Hatton Cross station waiting to pick 1of our maids up and just witnessed what I guess is s pretty close call???
A Qatar Air plane was crossing the runway when all of a sudden I heard a Delta airlines coming in to land and straight away I thought it was odd. The tail of the Qatar plane was still on the runway and the Delta was still coming down as it crossed over the A30, then I heard it really power up hard as it headed straight back up into the air snd disappear back into the clouds. I'd say the Delta plane at a rough guess was less than 200ft from the ground!!!!!
Pretty unusual thing to witness, well for me anyway.
Just wondering how often this sort of thing happens???

Edited by chilistrucker on Sunday 12th June 08:57

[ruggedscotty]

Nope this doesnt happen very much at all - generally the movement of planes is rigiously controlled -

Landing plane may have tried to land on the wrong runway - taxi plane lost ? entered wrong ground space ? But for a plane to be landing and having to abort and take off again really isnt good at all.

Id say you did indeed witness a near miss, and we are talking mere seconds. If the plane had touched down there would have been not much that the pilot could have done.

[anonymous-user]

This was not a near miss.

The landing aircraft went around as the preceding one hadn't vacated the runway. It's a perfectly controlled event. Even if the air traffic controller had somehow missed it, the pilots aren't going to land if there's an aircraft in the way.

[chilistrucker]

I guess the Qatar plane was in the wrong spot maybe. I'm there twice a day in the summer picking up and dropping staff off and I always sit in the layby next to the carpark at Hatton Cross station. I enjoy watching the planes while I'm waiting for the maids. All the incoming planes were using the runway where I was sat to land, which is what makes me think the Qatar plane was in the wrong spot, (but I'm only assuming.)
It amazed me so much I got out of the van and looked to see if there were any spotters in the carpark as they are often there. There was 1 bloke who I walked over and asked did he just see, what I had seen? Turns out he was just a lost Chinese tourist and had no idea what I was talking about. Surely someone else saw it?
Do these incidents get logged?
It was a pretty bloody close thing, I'm sure the passengers on the Delta plane were a little shocked to be going back up when they were so close to the ground.

[djc206]

chilistrucker said:

I guess the Qatar plane was in the wrong spot maybe. I'm there twice a day in the summer picking up and dropping staff off and I always sit in the layby next to the carpark at Hatton Cross station. I enjoy watching the planes while I'm waiting for the maids. All the incoming planes were using the runway where I was sat to land, which is what makes me think the Qatar plane was in the wrong spot, (but I'm only assuming.)
It amazed me so much I got out of the van and looked to see if there were any spotters in the carpark as they are often there. There was 1 bloke who I walked over and asked did he just see, what I had seen? Turns out he was just a lost Chinese tourist and had no idea what I was talking about. Surely someone else saw it?
Do these incidents get logged?
It was a pretty bloody close thing, I'm sure the passengers on the Delta plane were a little shocked to be going back up when they were so close to the ground.

I doubt he was in the wrong spot. They're landing on 27L. Terminal 4 is to the south of 27L so the Qatari would need to cross the runway to get over to 27R to depart. Perhaps he was a bit slow in clearing or the controller didn't time it quite right. Either way it's called a go around, it's a well rehearsed and established procedure. For a mixture of reasons there's usually at least a couple of go arounds a day, more in bad weather.

[chilistrucker]

djc206 said:

I doubt he was in the wrong spot. They're landing on 27L. Terminal 4 is to the south of 27L so the Qatari would need to cross the runway to get over to 27R to depart. Perhaps he was a bit slow in clearing or the controller didn't time it quite right. Either way it's called a go around, it's a well rehearsed and established procedure. For a mixture of reasons there's usually at least a couple of go arounds a day, more in bad weather.

Thanks

[Kempus]

If the QR had just landed the delta would probably have received a land after clearance.

Have a look https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP413v21_6.p...

[aeropilot]

chilistrucker said:

I'm sat st Hatton Cross station waiting to pick 1of our maids up and just witnessed what I guess is s pretty close call???
A Qatar Air plane was crossing the runway when all of a sudden I heard a Delta airlines coming in to land and straight away I thought it was odd. The tail of the Qatar plane was still on the runway and the Delta was still coming down as it crossed over the A30, then I heard it really power up hard as it headed straight back up into the air snd disappear back into the clouds. I'd say the Delta plane at a rough guess was less than 200ft from the ground!!!!!
Pretty unusual thing to witness, well for me anyway.
Just wondering how often this sort of thing happens???

Not a close call at all.

Go-arounds are a regular occurance (several a week isn't unusual on average) for many reasons, including a/c that are a bit 'slow' clearing the live runway for whatever reason, it's all carefully managed by ATC.

[Starfighter]

Happened to a flight I was on. Preceding aircraft took some time to clear the runway so our Captain aborted the landing and went around and had another try.

Also ahd it happen coming in to Wildenrath many moons ago, that was caused by the East German airforce getting too close to the border and 2 Phantoms being sent up to see them off. Interesting to see then fly under a 737.

[fatboy b]

Up until a few years ago, I'd never been on an airliner and gone around (done a few while flying myself though), then had two in one flight going into O'Hare. We got too close to the plane in front on the first approach, went around. Second approach, exactly the same. You could have heard a pin drop in the cabin until the FO said all OK. Third time lucky, but now an hour late.

[peter tdci]

Back in the pre 9/11 days, I blagged my way into the jump seat of a BA shuttle from Belfast to Heathrow. After we were cleared to land, ATC 'encouraged' the aircraft ahead of us to expedite their departure from the runway a couple of times before the pilot flying us elected to land. Nothing dramatic, just the sense that a go around would be annoying.

Coincidentally, I experienced my first go around a few weeks ago, but that was because of adverse weather conditions.

[All that jazz]

Looking at the FR playback there were 2 Delta go-arounds. Just before 0715 an IB A320 lands then DL401 B763 behind it makes a go-around. Immediately behind there's a BA B744 landing and then the QR A330 appears to start moving across the runway as DL28 B764 is about to land which prompts him to go-around. It's difficult to tell for sure as the playback speed can't be slowed down enough, plus also the ground coverage there is patchy. I think it's more likely that both the go-arounds were a result of the previous arrival not vacating quickly enough. If it had been a runway incursion by the QR it would've been picked up on the aviation forums by now.

[matchmaker]

chilistrucker said:

I'm sat st Hatton Cross station waiting to pick 1 of our maids up and just witnessed what I guess is s pretty close call???
A Qatar Air plane was crossing the runway when all of a sudden I heard a Delta airlines coming in to land and straight away I thought it was odd. The tail of the Qatar plane was still on the runway and the Delta was still coming down as it crossed over the A30, then I heard it really power up hard as it headed straight back up into the air snd disappear back into the clouds. I'd say the Delta plane at a rough guess was less than 200ft from the ground!!!!!
Pretty unusual thing to witness, well for me anyway.
Just wondering how often this sort of thing happens???

I'd have sent my butler to do that.

[DaveH23]

Ive been on a flight in to Heathrow that had to do this.

Literally feet off the floor then full power back in the air. Captain then came over saying the plane in front had not cleared the runway.

Can imagine this isn't uncommon an in airport as busy as Heathrow.

[Crush]

el stovey said:

the pilots aren't going to land if there's an aircraft in the way.

A flash of the landing lights would get them to shift out the way