Originally Posted by
todd325
On the same note, I was on an AA flight landing in STL a few years ago, and the pilot did the same thing, except the wheels actually touched the runway before he lifted back up. Why on earth would ATC even let a pilot get that close to the runway if it's not safe to land?
The pilot has the ultimate responsibility to decide if it is safe to land whether anyone else thinks it is or not. Another plane landing or taking off before your flight might not have cleared the runway as expeditiously as ATC had expected as one example of what might have happened.