Hi everyone,

I flew with Cathay Pacific yesterday (Friday) from Singapore to Hong Kong on CX716.

It was my understanding that Cathay was one of the safest airline out there.
But to my surprise, the pilot had to abort the landing as we were about to land (I mean, we were really low, about to touch down), and after a second go, I experienced the hardest landing I've ever witnessed. And I fly a lot!

Someone in the know would be able to tell me what went wrong?
Weather didn't seem bad. Certainly not a typhoon day.

Anyway, I don't think I'll be paying more for 'safety' next time.

1. welcome to FlyerTalk!
2. "the safest" doesn't equal "one of the safest," but nitpicking aside I think you just want to reassure yourself that what just happened was safe. Fair enough.
3. You experience a "Go-Around." 99.9% Not that big a deal. The pilot had to abort landing for reasons you don't know. Maybe weather acted up (cross winds gusting out of limits, for example) or the controller in the tower warned him off for something going on near the runway, or many many other totally benign reasons.
4. Pilots care ~3% about how hard they land. You shouldn't care too much either. What matters most is that you landed safely. Hard landings happen for dozens of reasons, most of which are more about conditions than pilot not being super skilled. Landing is a cautious time, and safety matters completely more than gentleness or style.

As mentioned, aborting a landjng and hard landing is different than "safety."

Aborting a landing is safer than say trying to land when the aircraft prior to the one you are on failed to clear the runway in a timely manner. Or perhaps another aircraft on the ground made a wrong turn and entered the active runway.

A hard landing may be required in certain runway conditions.

someone once told me that the "safest" airline may not be the airline that has NEVER had a fatal crash... they may have a false sense of security and, well.. you know...