Syzygies

Yup.

My understanding is this happened 20 or so times on record, I saw one of them, and 19 out of 20 ended well. You know your history... Yes, it was a very serious stomach-churner, I couldn't fly for two years.

rebadc

Very expensive as well.

Aircraft is taken out of service and sent to maintenance.

Heavy wear and tear on engines with aborted landings.

imalawyer

These happen flying into BOS somewhat often, given the fog issues they face on the runway. I've been on two flights where just upon touchdown the pilot pulls up and banks away. There is apparently a 200-foot visibility window that closes up sporadically on very foggy days, requiring quick aborts.

BearX220

My condolences on a very bad experience, and also to TVCMH of course for the tragic loss of your cousin. (I lost my brother in a naval aviation crash... you never get over it, you just get on.)

I think it might be accurate to say 18 out of 20 ended well -- as TVCMH points out, a UA 737 augured in at COS in the early 1990s under very similar, odd circumstances: light load, clear sky, no other traffic, and the aircraft seized up and pointed straight down into the ground like a load of bricks. Not much the crew could do to help in that attitude. Mercifully quick though.

jddyess

As a pax on Aeromexico we once took 3 shots to get on the ground at SAT.
EVERYONE was crossing themselves and some were crying. The FO's voice
was cracking when he spoke over the PA. My wife and I looked at each other,
said, "I love you", and then sat back and relaxed for the final successful landing.

I later became a pilot myself and though MA's or aborts are not common they do
occur for most of us every so often due to weather minimums, ground or air traffic, etc.

Although we can't help but get a little tense as passengers, the procedures,
training and flight reviews make it very much routine for the crews.

JDD

"It's better to be down here wishing you were up there,
than to be up there wishing you were down here."

COCoachFlyer

Yes, but please remember that it's a busy time in the cockpit after initiating a go-around. It's pretty uncommon to hear anything from the crew until after some time passes and they've got the plane back up and maneuvered where ATC wants it again.

Bernoulli 777

"Execute missed approach..." And the turbines spool up to full power, the "G" forces press your butt down in the seat, the mechanical sounds of the landing gear comming up, winding sounds of flaps comming back in from fully deployed to take-off/climb out position, and we circle back around the bird farm into the landing pattern once again. It's like missing an exit off the interstate highway, you go straight instead of stopping. Happens to us all once in a while.

umguy

No it's not. It's like a normal take off. Now aborted take offs are a different story with the brakes and tires. But go arounds are no big deal. When I first started flight training and all through the whole process I've done 1000's of them.

Martinis at 8

Sure. We are five minutes from there. Mrs. M8 flys out of there routinely on a corporate jet.

M8

TVCMH

I think having a private license makes some of the ATC-related inconveniences of commercial air travel (ground holds, sequencing, go-arounds, long taxis, crew hours, weather avoidance routing, etc.) easier to understand and deal with.