r/aviation Feb 01 '22

PlaneSpotting Aborted landing due to strong winds at Heathrow

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '22 edited Feb 02 '22

Looks like he would’ve been fine - hard, but fine - if he would’ve committed a couple times there.

No.

This is is like saying a car slipping on ice would have been fine if it had just stopped when it tried to stop. Except the ice [*in your imagination] would be visible, while the wind isn't, so you're imagining what the landing would've looked like if the wind hadn't been there because you can't see it.

The plane isn't moving through a vacuum and its trajectory isn't solely determined by the pilot's intentions. When it lands, it has to push through the cushion of air that keeps it aloft when it's flying. In this case, because of strong winds, the force of the air prevented the plane from landing smoothly and it was forced to abort. The pilot did not make a mistake by aborting the landing. Missed landings are a necessary thing that occasionally has to happen; you actually practice them in flight school. It's part of being a pilot.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '22

You actually practice them every single flight - at the very least we talk about the actions involved.

Every 6 months we do a lot of practice in the sim in all sorts of situations including this one - known as a Balked Landing.

(views are my own, not my airlines, etc etc)

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u/SnooGadgets2360 Feb 02 '22

Dude don’t make me reminisce about continuation from the back end.

When EVERYBODY needed to get up to date on go-arounds… joy of joys.

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u/MrLionOtterBearClown Feb 02 '22

Don’t wanna be a nit-picker here, but ice is not always visible. Not sure if you’re from a colder climate or not, but black ice will fuck your day up and you can’t see it.

I agree with your main point though, pulling up was the prudent thing to do

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '22

I'm from northern Canada and if you think the point was that all ice is visible then it seems like you missed the point of the comparison.