Last Monday afternoon, I was flying into Burbank Airport from Northern California on an uneventful flight. The plane was on approach to land, and we had just passed over a familiar greenway, under high voltage power lines, which always indicates to me that we will be on the runway in a minute or so.
Well, not on that flight! All of the sudden, the pilot aborted the landing, powered up and headed for the sky. We passengers were looking at each other, wondering what was going on. The plane climbed in altitude as though it was on take-off, and then headed back towards Woodland Hills. We then circled and began a descent again, and a voice got on the address system and said that, “Something was on the runway,” so we couldn’t land on our original approach.
We were all OK, and I am so grateful that we got the heads-up on the runway problem in time and that our pilot handled the procedure so well. What a feeling of relief! However, I have lingering questions about why the incident happened ,what was on the runway ,and why our flight crew was not informed sooner. I guess it doesn’t matter, but I sure hope not to experience that again!
Photo taken at Bob Hope Airport on 1-10.
Ted // Jan 25, 2012 at 12:25 PM
There was nothing on the runway. That’s just the common excuse we give passengers when we pilots screw up. It always works because passengers can’t see out of the front of the plane. Burbank is well known for “slam dunk” approaches due to terrain & traffic conflicts with other airports. You were probably too high or too fast or both to make a safe landing. Southwest has slid off the end of Burbank before.