KLM213 missed approach @ YVR (Nov 6th)

[WastedFlyer]

I was driving near YVR today around 1:35 PM and saw a KLM on final (26R) at about 500 ft... I got my eyes back on the road for a few seconds, looked up again, and saw the KLM (A333) on a steep climb before reaching the runway's threshold... "Whoa! Missed approach"! First time I even witness an airliner doing a go-around... I was wondering what was the problem and listened to an audio archive (from https://www.liveatc.net/archive.php?m=cyvr1 ) where I gathered another airplane had not exited the runway yet... The communication between TWR and the pilot sounded very routine, and TWR had advised the pilot to be ready to do a missed approach... I wonder, how common are missed approaches in commercial flights...? I know that everyone on the radio will keep their cool no matter what, but it really sounded as if both TWR and pilot had done missed approaches a million times before and this was complete, boring routine for both...

If you wonder, the flight was KLM 213 (AMS - YVR) and the short missed approach communication happened at 1:37 PM (21:37 UTC)

Just sharing...

[confusedalot]

Circumstances for a missed approach are pretty rare. I've done maybe two in an airliner? Shit happens I suppose, when circumstances line up the wrong way.

It's really not a big deal but it does tend to scare the ''bleep'' out of many passengers, even if there is nothing dangerous about it.

Thank god for simulators, you get to do lots of them.

[ahramin]

While it is totally routine in the simulator, I do less than one a year in actual airline flying, it's just not that common. There are many things that can lead to a missed approach being required. Some because of ATC, some because of the flight crew, some because of weather, and some because of everything else .

[gwagen]

Circumstances for a missed approach are pretty rare. I've done maybe two in an airliner? Shit happens I suppose, when circumstances line up the wrong way.

It's really not a big deal but it does tend to scare the ''bleep'' out of many passengers, even if there is nothing dangerous about it.

Thank god for simulators, you get to do lots of them.

Good friend of mine, who's is getting up there in years, very afraid of flying. Loves flying model airplanes however.

Poor guy, can't get health insurance anymore, many medicals issues, refuses to stay in Canada during the winter, was in florida.

Had to come home to go to the hospital here, middle of February horrible freezing weather, airplane was on final over the runway at pearson and then went around, scared the life out of the guy.

To top it off, he got stuck on the apron in a beech 1900 with no power or heat at -10c or more for two hours waiting to fly back to Kingston.

Talk about a rough experience.

That said he's flying back to Florida in a few weeks, can't stand the cold.

[MZUNGO]

I see at least 1 a week at YVR. last summer I watched JAL go around TWICE. I'm not sure if they are even reported.

[linecrew]

I'm not sure if they are even reported.

It usually is reported as an AOR (Aviation Occurrence Report) which atc submits for anything that happens out of the norm. An unplanned overshoot fits that description.

[Eric Janson]

I'm not sure if they are even reported.

Never heard a word from the Airline about any missed approach I've ever done - that's at multiple companies.

What I will do is just mention why a missed approach was made in case anyone asks.

Been about 6 years since I did one outside the simulator - it's not something that happens often.

[Heliian]

There should be more missed approaches. Making a big deal of one is petty and counterproductive. So many incidents could have been directly avoided if they had simply done a missed approach. I guess back in the day of hand flying it was more common but now missed approaches are making the "news". You miss, you go around, try again. Stop making a deal of it.

[linecrew]

You miss, you go around, try again. Stop making a deal of it.

I assume you mean pilot initiated missed approaches. In this case it was ATC that initiated the go-around, which costs the airline money even though it was obviously the safe and prudent move by the controller. I think it's reasonable for there to be some sort of a reporting system whereby if there is an unplanned go around then the causal factors could be sussed out. For example, in this case the aircraft ahead had not cleared the runway yet. So was this because the aircraft on the runway flew their approach at a lower speed than expected or did ATC run the second aircraft too close to the first, or did the the second aircraft fly the approach faster than expected. Reporting would probably be more for figuring out if a deficiency exists rather than vilifying anyone.

[justwork]

I think I’ve done 4 or 5 missed approaches in my 15 year career. All at Toronto island.