Aborted landing

[Roofless Toothless]

My son left with his family yesterday on a flight to Zakynthos. I like to follow flights on Flightradar, so I tracked them down there all the way.

Approach to the airport seemed perfectly normal, down to about 200 feet and just short of the runway, but then they climbed up again and did a complete circuit of the island before coming into land at the second time of asking.

What causes this kind of thing on a commercial flight? I have never experienced it. Is it common?

[Familymad]

Can be many things. Change in wind direction, ATC request, unstable approach, vehicle on the runway, runway not seen due to visibility etc etc. The decision will have been made based on safety considerations I would have thought.

[WH16]

Go-arounds are not uncommon, well practiced, and happen for a variety of reasons as above.

[tangerine_sedge]

I once had this on a flight from Brussels to Bristol Airport. Visibility was *very* poor and the pilot had 3 attempts at landing before flying around for a bit. We were eventually diverted to Filton, then had to catch buses back to Bristol airport.

[maccboy]

We had it last week flying into Kefalonia. Freak low cloud. Two aborted attempts and then flew to Athens to refuel. Back for 2 more aborted attempts and then flew back to Athens and everyone got off and was put up in a hotel for the night. The following day, we had to fly round for 15 minutes when we arrived back at Kefalonia because the ground staff couldn't cope with too many flights at once!

[Jonathan27]

It seems that go-arounds happen in one in 250 - 400 approaches. So not that uncommon, but I expect that certain airports will represent a larger proportion of that ratio. I fly around 100 - 150 times a year and probably have a go-around once every couple of years.

[Roofless Toothless]

Thanks for the replies.

So, it must have been goats on the runway!

I bet my son didn’t enjoy it. He’s a nervous flyer, especially when with his kids. They of course love every minute!

I wonder if it is all explained to the passengers.

[craig1912]

Had two in Thailand in Feb. One we were too close to the previous aircraft at Bangkok and one was visibility at Phuket

[ExBoringVolvoDriver]

Jasey_ said:

Once had an aborted take off - that was fun

Pilot came on and said it was the wind shear warning that made him abort.

He then said we were going to give it another go as he thought the thing was broken and it was either go again with it turned off or back to the terminal and get a replacement plane.

I bet the nervous flyers didn't enjoy that

A friend of mine was in a plane that did the usual acceleration down the runway way and then suddenly came to a rather abrupt stop.

The captain came on and said “ok, let’s try that again with the back door closed!”

[Every day a journey]

Almost an everyday occurrence in Madeira!

[M4cruiser]

I've never yet been on a go-around landing, but was once in a "we can't take off we're too heavy" announcement. That spooked a lot of the passengers.
After "using up some fuel" on the taxiway, we then took off using every inch of the runway. That was a bit of a nervous time...

[RicksAlfas]

Earlier this year my son flew to Madeira from Leeds Bradford. The pilot had three goes at landing but each time had to abort due to high wind. He then diverted to Porto Santo for more fuel. He returned for another go and got it down. My son reckoned the clapping from the passengers was more than justified! Took nearly eight hours for a four hour flight but at least they were there. The Gatwick flight tried once and gave up and went home.

[Muddle238]

RicksAlfas said:

Earlier this year my son flew to Madeira from Leeds Bradford. The pilot had three goes at landing but each time had to abort due to high wind. He then diverted to Porto Santo for more fuel. He returned for another go and got it down. My son reckoned the clapping from the passengers was more than justified! Took nearly eight hours for a four hour flight but at least they were there. The Gatwick flight tried once and gave up and went home.

I fly into Madeira and it's a mixed bag. When the weather is pleasant, it's not hard and is one of my favourite approaches. When the weather is bad, boy can it be bad.

[GT03ROB]

Not uncommon:

1st - into Dubai, fog, plane obviously in the wrong place when he came through the fog. Diverted to Abu Dhabi
2nd - into Luxor, crew had forgotten to lower landing gear.....
3rd - into Luton, another plane entered the runway we were about to land on.
4th/5th - into Riyadh, wind shear...landed at 3rd attempt
6th - into Amsterdam, a bit windy, wheels touched down, we did a go around
7th - into Amsterdam, pilot aborted due to some fault lights that came on we were approaching touch down. Flew around a bit & they cleared the faults
8th - into LHR, plane ahead was too slow clearing the runway

Oh & on my last flight about 2 mins after take off a loud bang & a flash from the wing near the engine...... we;'d been struck by lightning!

[Arrivalist]

I had one a few years back due to another plane being on the runway. Pilot was very calm explaining the sudden acceleration and altitude gain once the manoeuvre was over.

[tog]

tangerine_sedge said:

I once had this on a flight from Brussels to Bristol Airport. Visibility was *very* poor and the pilot had 3 attempts at landing before flying around for a bit. We were eventually diverted to Filton, then had to catch buses back to Bristol airport.

I was long ago told that the RAF station which is now Bristol airport was built as a poor weather training airfield, as it is on top of a hill and frequently foggy. Filton would have made a much better location for a proper Bristol Airport, but one end of the runway is in south Gloucestershire and local politics meant it was never going to happen. Sadly the runway there is being built over now anyway.

[2xChevrons]

tog said:

I was long ago told that the RAF station which is now Bristol airport was built as a poor weather training airfield, as it is on top of a hill and frequently foggy. Filton would have made a much better location for a proper Bristol Airport, but one end of the runway is in south Gloucestershire and local politics meant it was never going to happen. Sadly the runway there is being built over now anyway.

Not quite - Bristol Airport started life as a Relief Landing Ground for RAF Weston-Super-Mare. It was deliberately sited on high ground (600ft-plus) on the Lulsgate Plateau so that it wouldn't be affected by low-lying fog, which Weston and other key airfields in the area like Filton suffered (and still do suffer) from regularly. Lulsgate's high elevation makes it very prone to cloud and wind when a warm front comes over the Bristol Channel and hits the Mendips, but in those conditions the main airports lower down are clear.

It all makes perfect sense when you consider that it was planned as part of a multi-site group of airfields to cater to all common weather conditions. It's just a bit of a problem now that it has to operate by itself!

I believe something similar applies to Leeds-Bradford and its infamous bumpy runway that runs in directions that the winds hardly ever blow along - something to do with it being built as part of Avro's wartime shadow factory, so the bombers leaving the field were lightly-fuelled and unladen, so it was decided that it was more important to route departing aircraft over open ground (not houses!) in case a bomber on its maiden flight suffered power or control problems. And landing was never really a consideration.

[tog]

Thanks, that makes sense. Filton might still have been a better site for the city's main civil airport however - closer to town and much better transport links to the region.

[Every day a journey]

One from Madeira yesterday

That would have been......... uncomfortable.

https://www.madeiraislandnews.com/2026/06/one-of-t...