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The WSJ has a short opinion piece today titled “Flying the Unfriendly Skies of Mexico.” A so, I dug up this alternative story and nighttime video of the incident.
I recall being on a Northwest jet coming into MSP. At the last moment, instead of continuing to decelerate, we sped up and headed skyward, again... Never saw any explanation. But it had to be something that was NOT supposed to happen.
Well, yes- same here on a Lufthansa going into Frankfurt. But such a "go-around" does not necessarily suggest an air traffic control misadventure... sometimes the timing of an anticipated sequence of events just doesn't work out, for a variety of possible reasons, necessitating a go-around. This sort of thing is well within the normal ATC operating environment.
BTW, prior to that I had no idea that an A320 could climb like a bat out of hell.
Twice. Coming into Tampa probably 20 years ago. The pilot came on later and said there’d been another plane on the runway. We did bank left and climb steeply. However, we were still some distance off the end of the runway. Not as close as in that video! Good sized jet - perhaps 727 or DC-9. Long time ago.
Second time was landing in TVC (northern Michigan) about 3 years ago in a commuter jet out of Chicago. Severe cross winds. Plane was rocking side to side. They nearly touched down and than decided to pull up and try again.
That video is pretty scary however.
In the mid 80s my flight back from Florida to DTW had a scheduled connection in Pittsburgh. Must have been on U.S. Air. Winds were so strong in Pittsburg only certain types of jets were authorized to take off. They cancelled our flight out and brought in a new 757 out of Detroit to pick us up. They poured the power to her and we climbed out at a steep angle. Then the captain came on the PA gloating: “Ladies and gentlemen - you have just witnessed the climbing ability of a 757 at full power. We have reached - - feet in just - - seconds.” I don’t remember the exact numbers. But ISTM it was in the vicinity of 10,000 -12,000 feet in something like 90 seconds. Lightly loaded. Hell of a ride.
Yeah, they just love it when they can do that kind of stuff. Doesn't happen all that often.
Our A320 was lightly loaded also, and for weight distribution we had been placed by ourselves in the very rear seats. All of a sudden we were flat on our backs. Fun!
Yeah - “Weight and balance“. Actually taxied back to the gate once at O’Hare when they detected that balance was off. Good sized jet. Guess they had to redistribute cargo. Better late than never.
Yes, it's interesting that the center-of-gravity (CG) is just as critical in the larger aircraft as it is in the small single-engine types. When the aircraft is balanced properly it wants to naturally stay level at cruising speed. In that configuration it doesn't take much force to move the nose up or down to adjust altitude. Just like a balanced see-saw.
The same sort of thing is true for having approximately equal weight on each side of the aircraft. A major factor there is the fuel distribution in the wing tanks. The passengers and freight are more towards the center of the aircraft, so their distribution is a bit less critical.
I always thought perhaps the Wright Bros.’s bicycle business somehow related to their understanding of flight. In particular, making turns on a bike involves banking slightly to one side or another.
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BTW, prior to that I had no idea that an A320 could climb like a bat out of hell.
Second time was landing in TVC (northern Michigan) about 3 years ago in a commuter jet out of Chicago. Severe cross winds. Plane was rocking side to side. They nearly touched down and than decided to pull up and try again.
That video is pretty scary however.
In the mid 80s my flight back from Florida to DTW had a scheduled connection in Pittsburgh. Must have been on U.S. Air. Winds were so strong in Pittsburg only certain types of jets were authorized to take off. They cancelled our flight out and brought in a new 757 out of Detroit to pick us up. They poured the power to her and we climbed out at a steep angle. Then the captain came on the PA gloating: “Ladies and gentlemen - you have just witnessed the climbing ability of a 757 at full power. We have reached - - feet in just - - seconds.” I don’t remember the exact numbers. But ISTM it was in the vicinity of 10,000 -12,000 feet in something like 90 seconds. Lightly loaded. Hell of a ride.
Our A320 was lightly loaded also, and for weight distribution we had been placed by ourselves in the very rear seats. All of a sudden we were flat on our backs. Fun!
The same sort of thing is true for having approximately equal weight on each side of the aircraft. A major factor there is the fuel distribution in the wing tanks. The passengers and freight are more towards the center of the aircraft, so their distribution is a bit less critical.