Aborted Landing
 

My poor wife just called me in tears. She's a seasoned FA but today her flight circled for an hour and a half waiting out bad weather. Upon finally being cleared to land, at the last moment, the pilot aborted the landing and pulled up abruptly. They finally landed. She still has to take off in a half hour in bad weather and fly home. I gave her all the comforting words I could muster but I can only imagine the terror she and her fellow crew and px felt.

She said she wants to quit. I told her I'd be waiting at home with some wine and a nice dinner. Don't know what else to do. She was in an aborted landing last year but it wasn't like this.

Going out now to get a really expensive bottle of vino.

No offense meant at all, but FAs are trained to handle situations much worse than aborted landings (which are a relatively common and very safe manuever).

If your wife was terrified and wants to quit from a weather delay and aborted take off, maybe she is a better fit for another role...

In terms of comforting your wife, just try to get her mind off of it.

I'd much rather have an aborted landing than a crash landing.

As the OP said, she is a "seasoned FA", we don't know what the situation was but there has been some pretty rough weather these days and this may have been more than just the "typical" weather delay/landing etc.

I'd say the wine and a nice dinner is a good way to go, perhaps some chocolate dipped strawberries too.

You're a good husband, OP. There are many threads on aborted landings on FT and much info in cyberspace, so maybe if your wife sees how common they are she will be more reassured.

I'm not a frequent flyer (about 10 segments a year), but I've had an aborted landing on Emirates in India. Talk about uneasy feeling. (I admit, I have more faith in American pilots and airport facilities.) Then the screen indicating destination changed from Bangalore to Chennai, so it was a double whammy. Luckily that was a mistake and we still landed in Bangalore (my connecting airport, not even final destination).

I think there might be more to the story than what the OP knows so far.

My wife has been a FA for over 10 years. She is definately cut out for it, she loves flying, but she's also human. From what she briefly told me, it was pretty bad, px screaming, etc. As I previously stated, she's been through an aborted landing before, but it certainly didn't cause her to call me in tears. I'll know more when she gets home soon. Definately will give her some extra attention tonight. Glad to hear it's common and relatively safe. It's got to be terrifying though. Thanks for the replies.

did they get wheels down(touch down?)? or just a go round? i've been on plane when the passengers panicked from gear and flaps going down. what do they know.

She's due to land in a few minutes. Will give her plenty of attention tonight (and stay off the internet.) I'm curious too how close they came to touchdown before aborting. Will check in tomorrow.

Wow.. It sounds like she certainly cares for her passengers

Hopefully she's feeling better.. seems like the weather is quite an impact emotionally for alot of flyers..

Bad idea.

Sounds more like a time to get a super cheap bottle. She's not going to care or realize or remember what it tastes like. ^

Aborted landings are not very common considering the number of landings every day.

FAs train for emergencies but the training only has simulated scenarios and everyone knows it is safe during the training.
There is no actual smoke/fire/screaming people/blood etc during training.

How a person reacts and feels in an actual situation can be very different.
e.g. soldiers train for war but when coming under fire, well, it's another matter.

That being said, flying is very safe and there are very few emergencies.
But the possibility is still there.
FAs should always keep that in the back of their minds that one day, they could encounter such a situation and that they have to be prepared for it.

Okay, here's the scoop. After circling for an hour and a half waiting for the weather to ease up, they finally got ATC clearance to land. The visibility was poor. Upon almost touching down (my wife says it felt like they were only a few feet from the ground), the pilot sees another plane at the far end of the runway, presumably it needed extra stopping distance due to the wet conditions. Upon seeing this, the pilot aborts and takes an aggressive angle to take off and reach 10,000 FT. Now they have to get back in line and they circled another 45 minutes before landing. During the abort, she said there was dead silence in the cabin. The second landing was very bumpy and she said that's when the px were screaming.

When she got home I had her dinner ready, some wine, and then I gave her a massage to calm her nerves. She's allright now.

i did not think a plane could land on a runway that was occupied by another plane.

That's why they aborted, I guess with the poor visability, the tower couldn't see the other plane hadn't cleared the runway already. She also told me the pilots were sweating and looked really freaked out afterwards. This has shades of Tenerife.