CNN
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The 2246 Pilot Flying American Airlines flight was preparing to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport on Tuesday. Air traffic control instructed the flight to “moves” and avoid getting too close to another plane departing from the same runway.
“Go Around” is an aviation term for canceling a landing, starting an immediate climb, and following instructions. Safety operations are used to prevent runway entry when a runway, vehicle or person is misplaced on the runway, and to counter other hazards, such as sudden wind shifts and sub-aware approaches.
Go-Arounds can feel uncomfortable with passengers, but they are routine and on average occur more than three times a day across the US last year, said former Transport Director, CNN Analyst Mary Schiavo.
Less than 90 minutes after the incident at Reagan National, Southwest Airlines flight in Chicago was forced to cancel its last minute landing as a private jet crossed an approaching runway.
The two incidents came when federal authorities investigated a string of recent commercial aviation accidents, including an airborne collision that killed 67 people a month ago at the same Washington, D.C. airport. Fatal Medevac Jet Crash in Philadelphia. Then, a local airline crashed on the coast of Norme, Alaska, killing 10 people.
These unsettling events, which are immediately after a series of close calls at US airports, encourage air travel anxiety, but experts say they are safer than ever, thanks to the changes in technology used by pilots and air traffic controllers, pilot education and general safety operations.
This is something you need to know about go-arounds, how often they occur, and how to keep your flyers safe.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the 30 US airports with the most flights (groups including Reagan National), account for around 0.39% of arrivals in fiscal year 2023.
While 0.39% may seem like a low figure, Go-Arounds is still considered common and occurs every day in the US, says Michael McCormick, former FAA airline and associate professor of air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Pilots can perform a go-around if the wind suddenly changes, or if the runway or aircraft are covering the runway. For American Airlines Flight 2246, the piloting “will increase the time another aircraft will take off,” American Airlines told CNN via email Wednesday.
Tuesday's incident was typical of what you'll see at the airport on a particular day, McCormick said.
Still, when that happens, it's important, he said. And to airline passengers unfamiliar with what's going on inside the cockpit, the pilot may seem abruptly.
“Passers aren't told that it's going to happen in advance, but they suddenly land and when the aircraft starts to rise again,” McCormick said.
“This is something pilots practice regularly with flight simulators,” he added.
According to Flightradar 24, data shows Flight 2246 was about 1.25 miles from the plane, about 1.25 miles away from the plane.
Go Around can set up a more ideal landing
Erika Armstrong, pilot and marketing director for Advanced Aircure Academy, an online aviation training program, said that when the plane is outside the parameters of the right approach, it's a “good choice.”
Most of the go-around occurs because the aircraft is either too high or too fast to get to the runway properly.
McCormick said it often occurs at airports with fewer runway and outdated runway designs. For example, Reagan National Airport has one major runway for large aircraft, with only one preferred option for landing and departing on busy airlines.
This is due in part to the location and age of the airport, McCormick said: Therefore, they do not have the ability to build additional runways. ”
Operating on a single runway does not necessarily increase the risk of “close calls,” McCormick said, but airports with multiple runways can reduce the time between each arrival and departure without the plane getting too close.
Experts and lawmakers have expressed concern about the busy airspace above the Washington area, strict security measures have been implemented, military and government helicopters regularly fly and fly on Reagan National Airlines, the country's busiest runway.
According to the FAA, go-arounds are often used to prevent runway intrusions, which can be caused by factors such as runway intrusions, pilot deviations, or vehicle or pedestrian deviations. And they can vary greatly in severity.
According to Flightradar 24, Southwest Airlines flights, which were forced to cancel their landings at Chicago Midway International Airport on Tuesday, have come close to about 2,050 feet to the private jet.
Midway Airport has an unusual layout with four operating runways bisecting each other like the big X, Schiavo pointed out. “If you look at the airport map, it looks like a plaid quilt,” she said. “There are so many runways, tuxilways and more.”
Of all 362 documented invasions at all “core 30” airports in 2023, only one was characterized as “a serious incident in which the collision was narrowly averted,” with eight people having “significant potential for conflicts,” the FAA reported.
Between January 2023 and September 2024, the National Transportation Safety Board investigated 13 runway invasions, including commercial or employment transport. These intrusions were in different categories, from some of the “no immediate safety impact” to avoiding collisions “narrowly”.
After making a series of close calls at US airports in early 2023, the FAA began several investigations into close collisions and created an independent safety review team.
This, according to the November 2023 final report, found inconsistent funding, outdated technology, lacking air traffic control towers, and troublesome training requirements amid the issue of “making the safety of current levels of safety unsustainable.”
The FAA says it has since taken several steps to limit close calls at airports. , including the company has announced grants to tackle aviation controller fatigue and improve airport infrastructure.
Additionally, in the first three months of 2024, the proportion of serious incidents fell 59% from the same period last year, the FAA said on its website.
In 2023, a go-around was launched by pilots to avoid a collision between the two planes, with a total of 372 people on board at Sarasota Bredenton International Airport in Florida, according to an NTSB report released Wednesday. The plane was less than 3,200 feet and was at the same altitude at the nearest point, the report said.
The NTSB discovered that the air traffic controller's “did not prioritize and properly monitor the runway and airport environment” and his “false assumption” disappeared before the next landing was over. The controller was the only person working at the tower at the time, and he turned his eyes off the runway from a “low-priority task,” the report said after more than two years of work to determine the “possible cause” of the incident.
The NTSB is that another runway invasion in the same year is attributed to the design of the old tax road. A small, single-engine Cessna 206 cargo plane landed on the same runway at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, United Airlines Boeing 777, with 301 people on board, crossed the runway.
The NTSB occurred because the airport continued to use the old design of the tax route, despite the pilots not repeatedly stopped properly at designated locations. The area was identified as a “runway intrusion hotspot,” according to the report.
The incident is a concern, but the FAA has established a layer of safety to protect flyers such as technology, training and procedures, experts say.
Recent advances include automatic maps of 35 control towers that display planes on the ground, warning the controller if there is a potential problem. Improved electronic maps for pilots in the cockpit. The deployment of a kind of stoplight, a runway intersection at 20 airports. Improved airport maps and signs. New training videos and simulations for pilots and controllers.
This is part of what the FAA calls “the shift from compliance-based safety systems to runway safety to risk-based, data-driven, integrated system solutions.”
“We teach this extremely dense airspace pilot to have situational awareness and teach it,” Armstrong said.
