Passengers left shaken by Air Malta ‘go around’ manouvre
Matthew Vella
The UK’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) will not be investigating an alleged emergency ‘go-around’ procedure by an Air Malta aircraft which left passengers flying to London Gatwick somewhat shocked.
A concerned airline passenger and Air Malta’s head of public relations were involved in a tit-for-tat email conversation, when UK resident Charles Vella complained of an alleged “near-miss disaster” at Gatwick Airport.
Vella said that his partner was flying from Malta to London Gatwick on 22 August, but found her and all other passengers on the same flight “distressed and happy to have escaped what might have been a terrible accident.”
Vella claimed that the Air Malta plane had almost touched down at Gatwick when it suddenly took off at high speed, because another plane was on the runway.
In his complaint to Air Malta, Vella said he “will not believe that at Gatwick airport (with) such heavy traffic, the traffic controllers would allow themselves to make such a silly mistake.”
Air Malta’s spokesperson Stephen Gauci later informed Vella that the Air Malta aircraft had performed “a go-around procedure” before landing at Gatwick, as a result of departed traffic on the same runway.
“Gatwick’s tower instructed the pilots to operate this procedure and return for landing... this fairly normal procedure is initiated for safety considerations and to keep safe distances from conflicting traffic and or ground vehicles,” Gauci said.
He added that a go-around did not constitute any sort of emergency.
“Air Malta wishes to stress that at no time where passengers in any danger… the airline regrets any inconveniences caused to its passengers due to circumstances beyond its control.”
But an unconvinced Charles Vella replied to the airline, claiming he found it hard to believe that Gatwick’s air traffic control noticed other traffic on the runway only a short time before landing.
“I shall be contacting Gatwick Airport for further clarification on the matter and come back with any findings on their behalf… All passengers I spoke to described the landing as unusually at a steep angle and at a high speed. The ground speed showing on the flickering monitors was going up rather than down during landing and before the go-around procedure.”
In comments to MaltaToday, a spokesperson for the NATS, which runs Gatwick’s air traffic service, said the go-around was a standard safety procedure:
“(It’s) not in any way dangerous. It happens at airports around the world. The pilots flying the plane can see the runway ahead (which the passengers can’t) and they’re in control. If, for whatever reason, the plane in front is slow to turn off the runway (if it’s landing) or slow to start its take-off run (if departing), or there’s a gust of wind across the runway, then the pilots make the plane go around and do a fresh approach,” Richard Wright told MaltaToday.
Wright added that being a standard safety procedure, go-arounds are not logged and are not required to be investigated.
Air Malta’s spokesperson reiterated that go-arounds were fairly common occurrences in busy airports like Gatwick.
“Air Malta wishes to stress that at no time were the passengers in any danger. On the contrary, not initiating the go-around maneuver could result in a reduced margin of safety.”
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