is it safe to fly?

  1. 1,875 Posts.
    Yesterday morning at around 8 am, I was putting my socks on having noted that it was raining and visibility was poor. I live about 1 km south of Adelaide Airport, on the coast and in my idle moments enjoy watching planes take off or land. Yesterday morning they were landing from over the sea, but it was difficult to see them until they emerged from the cloud as they approached.

    All of a sudden there was an almighty noise and I looked out just in time to see the nose wheel of a massive plane just outside my window.

    It was clearly about 400 metres south of it's flight path and still descending. It would have landed (goodness knows where) in another 500 metres.
    Almost the instant I saw it, there was a massive roar, which shook my place, and what I could now see was an international arrival that took off into the sky over the city like a rocket.

    Pulling myself from a moment of sheer terror, I thought, it probably happens (only occasionally I hope)and I'm sure pilots are very familiar with all the standard procedures required to abort a landing.

    This was different however, as in my opinion the plane had missed it's flight path by a significant margin and it seemed to take the pilots a long time to notice. I can't imagine the size of the crater and the devastation if they hadn't pulled out when they did.

    I was wondering what the passengers on the plane (most of whom must have realised they were closer to Anzac Highway than the airport) were thinking and what they were told.

    For a moment it was terrifying. And guess what - nothing in the media. I found an ABC report below that shows the airlines/airport brushed it off as nothing. In my opinion it was a massive pilot error, in poor conditions. If they were trying to see the runway they should have pulled the blinds up, if they were using instruments then I have no idea what could have gone wrong.

    I am looking for an explanation. Was this as routine and mundane as the authorities and media would suggest? Have I over-reacted? Perhaps a Hot Copperite was on the plane and could explain.

    Sure hasn't helped me relax about flying (or living within 2 kms of an airport either)

    ABC report.
    There has been an alert at Adelaide Airport as a Singapore Airlines flight was forced to make a second landing attempt on a wet runway.

    Airport management initially cited safety concerns because another plane was still leaving the main runway, but later said there was not a second aircraft involved.

    An airline official said the pilot chose to go around because heavy rain in Adelaide had reduced visibility.

    There were 265 people on board.

    My final say - the pilot chose to go around to save lives!!! I'm sure the pilots probably had things under control, but it looks like they made a very big mistake to get where they were - they weren't even close. Why won't the authorities admit the extent of the problem/error rather than just pass it off with spin.

    Do they expect pilots to fly like this bloke?
 
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