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Chris Gray-Garcia was flying home to Washington D.C. this afternoon from a funeral in Denver, Colo. when he felt his America West Airlines flight suddenly jerk up and abort its landing at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.
The Airbus A321 began to make a fresh approach to the runway, and seconds later its pilot explained over the intercom: “Unfortunately, there was another plane on the runway.”
Gray-Garcia was shaken but relieved. “It seemed we were 30 to 100 feet off the ground and we had to pull up pretty quickly,” he said. “It turned out fine, but I must say it was a little scary.”
As it turns out, he and other passengers on the full Flight 1522 were never in danger, a Federal Aviation Administration official said today. But they could have been if not for quick reactions by a Charlotte/Douglas air traffic controller and the pilots flying 1522.
“These ‘go-around’ procedures are not uncommon,” said Kathleen Bergen, an FAA spokeswoman in Atlanta. “At Charlotte/Douglas, you probably have one or two ‘go-arounds’ a day. It’s a safety procedure. It ensures that no plane lands unless the runway is completely cleared.”
Today, Gray-Garcia’s flight was about a mile from runway 36C – and about 300 feet off the ground – when a controller noticed a departing plane, America West flight 1525, had rolled too slowly onto the same runway. America West is a part of US Airways.
The controller instructed the incoming pilot to pull up and execute a go-around. But here’s where there was apparent confusion: The controller sent the departing plane in a direction that was meant for the incoming one.
She immediately caught her mistake and sent the departing plane in a different direction and told it to climb to 9,000 feet.
“There was no danger, since the two planes were flying in different directions and they had visual separation,” Bergen said.
Flight 1522 landed safely – except for a few tattered nerves among passengers.
“Being so close to the ground and pulling up so suddenly caused some concern for me,” Gray-Garcia said. “A couple of people around me looked startled, too. It seemed a dramatic enough move that a little more explanation from the pilot might have been in order.”
