surferdl

On a Bahamas Air flight into FLL,

We aborted around 30 feet from the ground when a plane pulled out in front of us, almost stalled going back up. Made the news in FLL.

Scared the chit out of me and I fly alot.

Steve M

I had a double go-around at LAX once. Not sure what caused the first one, but we made the big circle to come back around for another try, and maybe a minute before the second try at landing, the wind had shifted and LAX had just switched the runway directions, so we had to climb again, go out over the ocean, and come in from that direction. We were coming from LAS, and I think the landing procedures at LAX took as long as the rest of the flight. Maybe a third of the passengers were Japanese tourists with a tight connection back to Japan, and they all grabbed their stuff and rushed off the plane as soon as they could and on to their other terminal.

crux

I was on a atl-bos flight a few weeks ago and got to about 50 feet from Logan when we started climbing. According to the crew the guys in the tower " were not watching closely enough". Nothing really happened but it wasnt exactly confidence inspiring.

scubadiver

Shot down once. Pilot got the Silver Star for bringing the burning C-130 down in one piece. After that, any other airborne emergency is something of an anticlimax.

SANspotter

Aborted landings:

UA 737 into SFO about 5 years ago (traffic on runway)
DL 727 into CVG in 1999 (traffic on runway)
NW A320 into SAN in 2005 (traffic on runway)

Aborted takeoff:
ATA (Chicago Express) Saab 340 @ SBN in 2003. Engine malfunction. I admit that was pretty scary. Engine went BOOM then spat fire. I had a window seat right behind the wing so I got the full view.

GUWonder

Several, but my last aborted take-off was four or five years ago on a flight when leaving the LA-area for NY. Some passengers freaked after the aborted take-off and wanted off the flight.

dimramon

About two days ago for the first time. Final approach into ORD on a 777. I heard it on Channel 9 before it actually happened. ATC was yelling: United 910, go around!

davidthomson

Oh yes, plenty of times. The scariest was a few years back into MIA on an AA A300 from BOG. Fierce tropical storm had just gone through, and a small window opened up so the pilot took it and went in to land. We hit wind shear on final approach and by a real miracle didnt end up buried in the runway. I was on the window seat in the first row of business and estimate we were about 100m from going left wing first into the runway. What really made me understand how close we were to buying it was seeing the FA's crying (literally!!!!) after we pulled out and then serving themselves a stiff scotch (clear line of view of the galley from that seat) as we had to re-route for Bahamas and wait a couple of hours for MIA to re-open. Turns out one of the FA's had lost a sister (also FA) in the West Carribean MD crash over Venezuela a few years ago.

hfly

I've been in too many to count. The only three that ever worried me were....

1) A touch and go in Nice with Swissair (320), I was in 1D, the cockpit door was open and the computer voice started blaring WINDSHEAR WINDSHEAR PULL UP PULL UP!!. Had it not been for that it wouldn;t have been a big deal.

2) Once flying out of HKG, we had an uncontained engine problem on takeoff taht was aborted, whereby there was a bang and flames shooting out of the engine (A340) .

3) Years ago on a Pan Am 747-100 out of LHR somehow the pilot managed to ding the wingtop on takeoff, the very end was hanging off and there had been some damaged, we dumped fuel and then landed.

msv

Yes twice on the same flight. It was about 1978 and we were leaving EWR as heading for Bermuda. First attempt it felt the engines were backfiring and we were WAY down the runway before the abort. The second attempt was interesting as I was sitting by the window just ahead of the engine and saw flames shooting out when they started the takeoff. The plane returned and the engine replaced and 8 hours later we finally departed. I had no idea you could complain and get sent on another airline so after that I became a much more educated consumer!

Nosmo King

My experience may be a bit different than most: I'm a retired USAF KC-135 pilot. So first off, let me say there's a world of difference between an aborted landing an an aborted takeoff -- an aborted takeoff is the result of something unplanned, a malfunction or some airfield problem. An aborted landing (i.e., a go-around or missed approach) is a demonstration of good pilot judgment!

That said I've had plenty of both when I was in one of the front row seats.

My one and only commercial takeoff abort was on a LH A300 from Berlin. Normal ground roll up to nosewheel lift off -- called rotation or V2 -- when the plane shifted violently from left to right to left. Pilot over controlling the rudder I figured, funny there wasn't much wind, but then the nosewheel came down and he got on the brakes hard ... real hard! My first thought was, "Crap, I'll bet someone taxied across our runway and we just avoided a Teneriffe accident! Otherwise why the hell would he abort during rotation?! I'm no expert on Airbuses, but on my trusty Boeing Stratotanker you would never abort after rotation, except in the most dire of circumstances (like 3 of 4 engines fail, or the wing falls off)

At the same time I saw the left side of the runway disappear (was seated in a window seat on the left) and I thought (it's amazing how fast you think and how slow time goes), "Aww, crap, were going to go into the grass ... better be slow enough or the gear's gonna collapse!"

I put my head in my arms and braced on the seat in front of my for what I was certain was going to be a "bumpy" end to this short flight (afterall, the nosewheel DID get airborne). But no, we stayed on the runway and came to a firm stop; far more abrupt than when the gate marshaller goes from "c'mon, c'mon, c'mon to full STOP" in a half second.

Plane came to a stop, I looked at my wife, who seemed more concerned with my impromtu brace position than our situation, and said, "Aww, crap, we're gonna have hot brakes for sure, at least. We're gonna have to get off the plane. Wanna go for a ride on the slide?" I get a blank stare.

Next I'm thinking, I know what they're going to say, "Leave your bags behind." But I'm not leaving my laptop under the seat ... my next thought was interrupted by what I think was a recorded announcement, "ACTION STATIONS", in English, on an Airbus, Lufthansa, in Germany. Hmmm.

Very shortly after the recording the pilot comes on and in German (my high school Deutsch ist nicht so gut) said something. Then in English says, "We've had a malfunction and the brakes may be hot. Flight attendents prepare for evacuation."

But then nothing ... the fire trucks arrive and I saw a couple of firemen under the wings, checking the brakes I presumed. Shortly after we taxied to an open area of the ramp where we did deplane via airstairs, not the slide. "Bummer", I thought.

From the bus they brought out for us I could see large fans blowing on the brakes. Standard for hot brakes. I guess they weren't real hot though, as brakes take about 15 minutes to reach their peak temps, and the firemen didn't seem too concerned.

Couple of lessons:
Footwear -- I've always believed in keeping my shoes on until airborne and wearing real shoes, not flip flops or sandles. Wouldn't want to run away from a burning plane barefoot!
Passport and/or ID -- Keep it in my pocket! Both our passports were in a rollaboard in the overhead and not with the laptop at our feet.

Kudos to the LH pilots and the FAs, all very professional. The next day's Berliner Zeitung had a headline which translated "Tragedy Averted at Tegel". Turns out we had a simple engine failure just prior to rotation, not the Canary Island Pan Am/KLM thing I imagined. Tragedy averted? I suppose, but maybe it was a slow news day too.

And I'd like someone qualified in A300s to tell me it's SOP to abort DURING roation!

MichaelColey

I've probably flown close to 200 segments. I've never had an aborted takeoff, but I did have one aborted landing. If I remember right, it was a TWA flight into St. Louis. Heavy fog/cloud cover. I was in a window seat and was looking out into pure white. The flaps were raised. The landing gear went down. I kept watching for the clouds to break. It was nearly two minutes after the landing gear went down, and I thought maybe we would touch down without ever seeing anything. All of a sudden, the nose pulled up and we were accelerating rapidly. After about a minute, the pilot came on the PA and explained that the plane in front of him had slowed down too much and that there was no longer a safe distance. We went around and landed about half an hour later.

stinky123

I had a lot of scary small-plane flights between SLO airport and LAX; it seemed like a lot of time was spent in clouds, and I knew there were mountains down there somewhere. Once, a plane I was on from SLO to LAX tried to land, we were in unbroken cloud and then fog, were just about to touch down it seemed like, when we suddenly pulled up and then landed at John Wayne airport.

We were brought back to LAX in a van. Still not sure what happened.

Global_Hi_Flyer

Packed-to-the-gills AA MD-80 at DCA. The only time I've ever thought I might end up in the water..... (we used every inch of runway).

A couple of other times that were inconsequential (hubs with long runways).

hoyateach

Also at DCA on a CO 737 to EWR. We'd just pulled onto Runway 19 when the pilot goosed the engines. It was enough to move us forward at a good clip but not nearly enough to get us airborne. We rolled maybe thirty feet, abruptly swung to the right and back onto the taxiway. Apparently, another plane had been given clearance to land as we pulled onto RWY 19 and the tower had ordered us off. Once the US Airways A320 was on the ground, we jumped to the front of the line and took off without incident.

Not scary at the time so much as puzzling.