I arrived in London on AA116 (23:30 JFK to LHR) this morning (19th August). We came in to land, crossing the Heathrow perimeter fence, but seconds before the wheels would have touched the runway, the pilot applied full thrust and we started to gain altitude again, flying above the length of the runway. The reason given was that we passed through a freak, sudden, dense rain shower as we were about to land. The captain explained that "they needed to see the runway for the type of landing they were performing" and even though we were so close to the ground, the density of the rain caused them to lose visibility of the runway so they had to go round at the last possible second. I had a window seat and can vouch for the sudden loss of visibility.
The JFK-LHR overnight flights on AA are not without incident. A couple of months ago we diverted to Shannon, Ireland due to two guys in the row behind me involved in an air rage incident with the cabin staff.
AA B777 Last second go-round at Heathrow today
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Myself and a colleage had one of these on a BA 320 airbus coming back from LHR to ABZ last November. I could swear the back wheels had touched the ground (I was right at the front sweating 'cos it was really bumpy coming in) and then boom - off we go again. Exhilirating maybe....but I sh*t maself!!! I looked out of teh window and as we were rising again all I could see was the fire engines below coming out of their werehouses...
Then the idiot purser put everyones mind at ease (not) by saying the captain would speak to us shortly but is rather busy at the moment!! Given half the plane saw fire engines that was the wrong thing to say....
Anyway...it wasn;t a fire needless to say. Basically the weather was so bad I think they tried to land too far down the runway by accident - ABZ is very short!
Then the idiot purser put everyones mind at ease (not) by saying the captain would speak to us shortly but is rather busy at the moment!! Given half the plane saw fire engines that was the wrong thing to say....
Anyway...it wasn;t a fire needless to say. Basically the weather was so bad I think they tried to land too far down the runway by accident - ABZ is very short!
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