Originally Posted by
berlinflyer
Well, after two minutes the pilot came on to tell us the procedures and informed us about the reason for the go around: 10 knots tailwind, which is too much for the a/c. He also informed us that he requested TXL Tower to change the direction of landing, which they confirmed.
After about 10 minutes of crusing, we started another approach. But wait a minute, arenīt we coming in from the east again? Yes, indeed. I could cleary see that we took the same approch as a while ago. The flaps came out, the gear was lowered and then: full power again, this time about 10 seconds before touch down: our second Go-Around!
The pilot took a sharp 180° left turn and climbed rapidly. He came on again to tell us that by now, he was really, really mad about TXL airport authorities. Instead of changing the landing direction, they forced him to try again to land from the eastern direction, this time we experienced almost 20 knots of tail wind!!
He told us that he made the decision to fly to HAJ (Hannover) now as it would not be safe to try another approach in TXL. by now, a lot of people were pretty nervous and the great crew tried the best they could to calm everybody down.
The question is whether TXL experienced constant tailwinds or only winds gusting up to certain speeds for short moments, like MST had yesterday...
Considering all the aircraft on approach to TXL with another airport in the vincinity, it does not make too much sense to grant a LH pilot his wishes, if only he experienced a situation like the one the OP described.
Considering the third approach, after some fatal accidents on the third approaches , many airlines ( not sure if LH is among them ) restricted their pilots to either two approaches or the third one to be flown by another pilot in command, so it may be company policy to divert to HAJ and not a question of fuel...