I had my first official kinda scare today flying from home from LGW to PHL. I was on a 757 and we were getting ready to land. We had just passed by that big blue crane at the Philadelphia ship yard. I don't know the exact lingo, but the plane sharply (out of the blue) tilted nose up and we did not land. We climbed rather severely quite quickly.

I had never experienced an aborted landing before. Clearly all of us on the plane were perplexed. The captain quickly came on to let us know that they were having issues with the flaps and they had a "disagree light" and they would fly around a bit to see if (**IF**?!?!?) they could make the flaps do their thing.

Is this a common occurrence? Were we really in any actual danger?

Flaps have one function, and one function only - to allow the aircraft to continue generating lift at slower airspeeds. But, as with all things aerodynamic there is a tradeoff. They also create additional drag.

They are used during take off (only a little bit) to aid in allowing the aircraft to generate lift on the take off roll. Then they are used in decent as the aircraft slows down. Here is where that drag comes in handy - the flaps allow the aircraft to descend without picking up too much speed.

The good news is that the aircraft can take off and land without functioning flaps. To answer your question - it doesn't happen often, and you were in virtually no more danger than you were by even stepping on the aircraft (which is to say - practically nill). Clearly you're ok because you landed. Were the flaps eventually deployed?

I've had about 6-8 go arounds over the past few years. Ironically, I had a similar flap experience on a UA 757 into Seattle. The pilots had to go around so they could execute a special checklist. Otherwise, you were in no danger.

Now, the go arounds into LGA due to traffic ... now those are fun. :p

Around 2000 I flew a US A320 PHL-SAN. The pilot announced that we'd be landing in about 15 minutes. 15 minutes passed and I noticed that we were still flying in circles above the clouds. The pilot then announced that he couldn't get the flaps down and they they were in contact with US maintenance and were working on the problem. At this point I'm starting to get nervous. Sometimes a degree in Aerospace engineering is NOT a good thing to have when your mind starts to go through all of the possibilities of a no-flap landing at SAN.

Eventually the pilot stated that he still could not get the flaps down and that we'd be making a no-flap landing at SAN. Now I'm really starting to ponder flying down that hill, without flaps, at higher than normal speed to a 9400 foot runway with city streets on one end and water on the other. This is not my idea of a top notch ending. Besides, LAX is just up the road with a 12000 foot runway and a simple approach path (At this point I wouldn't mind the drive, really, honest. And 2600 more feet of concrete can be very re-assuring!).

The pilot informed us that everything would be fine. We would land without flaps and that simply meant that we'd by flying faster than we usually would during approach and touchdown. He also stated that we'd be seeing the airport fire trucks with their lights on as we rolled out, but not to worry, its normal for these events. Now I'm starting to think about my daughter, family, friends, etc.. Not at all how I imagined the kickoff to this trip to SAN.

I've flown into SAN about 50 times and always enjoy watching the skyscrapers go by on the left side of the aircraft. To this day I'll never forget how much faster than normal those buildings were receding past the windows during the approach.

The real beauty of this event was how good a job the pilot did during approach, touchdown, and rollout. We touched down firmly, but I've I've experienced much harder touchdowns during "normal" approaches. Braking during rollout was very firm, but the aircraft always seemed to be under complete control. We stopped with about 1000 feet of runway remaining (I make a habit of watching the distance boards) and everyone cheered. Honestly, If no one had told the pax that this was an unusual situation I don't think most would have noticed anything different about the entire thing. A great many pax (including myself) thanked the cockpit crew for the terrific job they did as we were leaving the aircraft ^.

You were in no danger that was terribly great - even lowly GA pilots like me get to play the no flap landing game from time to time. (as a side note, it ranks a close second behind the partial panel under the hood game).

That said, you're much better of with a guy like Jim behind the yoke :D

Were the flaps eventually deployed?

Yes, they were. :)

Thanks to all here for your replies.