Extended Flare, Go-Around Lesson
- An analysis surfaced of an approach where a prolonged flare led the crew to execute a go-around. - The write-up emphasized recognition cues, runway excursion risk, and timely go-around decision-making. - It illustrates classic emergency-procedure triggers and the callouts crews must use to avoid excursion during unstable approaches (x.com).
A landing flare is the short transition from descent to touchdown, and if it stretches into a long float above the runway, crews are trained to go around rather than force the airplane onto the pavement. (atsb.gov.au) That lesson is at the center of an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report on a Jetstar Airbus A321 approach into Sydney on June 26, 2025, when the airplane flared at 50 feet, floated for a prolonged period, and drifted left of the runway centerline in an 8-knot right crosswind. (atsb.gov.au) The captain told the first officer to go around, and the crew climbed away and landed soon afterward without further incident. During the maneuver, the captain also made an inadvertent sidestick input while the first officer was flying, triggering a dual-input alert, and some go-around items were completed out of sequence. (atsb.gov.au) A runway excursion means an aircraft runs off or veers off the runway during takeoff or landing. The Federal Aviation Administration says unstable approaches are one of the factors that feed that risk. (faa.gov) The National Transportation Safety Board says an unstabilized approach can leave an aircraft too fast or too far down the runway, with too little pavement left to stop. Its 2019 safety alert warns that crews who continue instead of going around can end up in a runway excursion or loss-of-control event. (ntsb.gov) The industry has spent years trying to get crews to make that decision earlier. Flight Safety Foundation says failure to go around is the top risk factor in approach-and-landing accidents, and only about 3 percent of unstable approaches end with crews complying with go-around policy. (flightsafety.org) Manufacturers teach the same point in more specific terms. Airbus says that if an aircraft floats above the runway, the crew should initiate a go-around instead of trying to salvage the landing, and it ties missed speed callouts below target approach speed to tail-strike and hard-landing risk. (safetyfirst.airbus.com) The Sydney case also shows why the maneuver itself is treated as high-workload. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the captain’s handover to “I have control” interrupted the normal sequence of crew actions, although the airplane stayed within its flight envelope and performance was not affected. (atsb.gov.au) The bureau’s closing point was not about a bad landing but about a timely escape from one. Its report said crews should stay “go-around minded” and review likely go-around scenarios before the approach begins. (atsb.gov.au)
