Virgin Atlantic Airways A340-600 Aborted Landing In Boston - July 18, 2010

[90scoolll]

woops! why it fly again?

[TLVspotter]

Wow, the descent rate before the touchdown seems to be really fast.

[EKO747]

BAD QUALITY... :p

[jonny96]

Looked like Wind shear! It dropped like a brick!!!

[Diego9806]

This happened to me flying into Mexico City. I was right on the wing thinking just before coming in "God I have feeling this plane is going to land on one set of wheels and the opposite wing is going to crash into the ground". Sure enough that is almost what happened. The pilot got down one set of wheels down but couldn't get the other set down. The wing I was on nearly hit the ground as he tried to level the plane. He couldn't so he took off again. My heart nearly came out of my chest.

[razor281]

woooww that was nice



[Vidposter1000]

HOLY SHIT THE PLANE ALMOST STALLED

[Fluvance]

I like the part where he said Oh

[flyingxk]

the audio is like somebody witnessed a blowjob in progress....lol

[sacpilot]

would've been far better without the stupid commentary. ooohhh. STFU.

[HugoAndres]

oooooou oooooooou oooooooou

[pacidessi]

Thanks for showing, I love the 346, obviously it bounced, which at a lot of airlines means an obligatory go-around.

[FabioAzul777]

tbird209, all your vids would be more interesting if they had no narration . . .

[minitrundle]

I've seen a few touch and go's in my time, but that was one hell of a touch down!

Good thing it has 12 wheels on the main gear to adsorb the impact

[2711marty]

Oooooooh virgin Atlantic missed approach. Ooooooooooooohhhhhhh. My god fella, calm down these things happen - and even to American carriers, like my Delta 757 in to JFK, when wind sheer caused the pilot to think better of the landing!

[Mrtoledo25]

Oooooooooooooooooohhhhh oooooohhhhh

[Eflightheli]

Nice one

[syafiqpilot]

Wow . What a hard slam and touchdown there ..

[Kpj7466]

ouch !

[ass23ful]

They just went double rainbow on a A340 lol

[bmemodels07]

ah, very intresting video :) Good to catch it on film.

[Trevo711]

"oooOOOoooo she's doing a go around ohhhhhhhh missed approachhhhh oooo" - You sound like that bloke who got high watching a rainbow! haha

[jonny96]

Jesus that hit hard, not much you can do in that situation! Pilots probably initiated the go around a few seconds before smack down! That much inertia your just a passenger!

[flyairberlin738]

Windshear go-arround, thats bad =S, but The Video is cool =)

[aristotrash]

@sean2015 You very well could be right, but the pilot announced to the passengers that they had experienced wind shear (according to my husband, who was on the plane - I wasn't). It might not be true or the full story, but that was the only explanation the pilot gave, apparently.

[AviadorLPA]

That was very hard touchdown.

[dskxalive]

Yes it was a missed approach lol. What a huge bird!

[fernousdu972]

Wow very hard landing! The main gear must have been damaged!

[youtrein]

Amazing video Tbird ! Great catch !!

[smartdon007]

Just saw a missed approach of Virgin Atlantic in the Caribbeans....The airport is very close to my home, so i can see all the flights landing and taking off ! This is the 1st time I saw something like this since the 8 months I have been staying here !

[LfcGoddardENGCJG]

ar shit im not suppose to be landing here.

[hawk45653]

What runway

[0764321]

double go around all the way! It almost looks like a triple go around!

[alanmccann1]

Dont ye just love virgin atlantic :)

[Philibert737]

Wow, breathtaking event: a go around... I hope I can get ticket to the next go around of a Virgin A340-600... *rolls eyes*

[uscgswimmer1]

dude shut the fuck up

[WhiteBlueTiger88]

As a LHR's fan I love Virgin Atlantic. As an aviation lover I absolutely thank you for this video you delivered us! Extremely high definition. Which camera did you use to make it?

I love goarounds because the flight goes on so the plane is like is extending her "life"! :-)

Only a question: why in English language planes are always called "she" and not "it". Although I love this fact I think it is curious for non-native speakers. :-)

[rachaelmatt]

Virgin are FUCKING AMAZING!!! Love that airline!

[emiratesA380NCL]

doctor doctor i think my back is broken

ohhhh dear, how did that happen

I flew Virgin Atlantic

[SouthwestFreak]

oh wow!!!!!!!!!

[florentlondon]

its a touch and go aborted somthing like that

[hawk45653]

Where were you filming

[sssoaring2]

More of a touch and go :-P

[JAGIFFORD]

obviously caught out by windsheer at about 30 feet..... applies full power at around 20 feet but its too late as the engines take around 5 to 10 seconds to spool up ,but just does enough to rescue the undercarriage, would of been one pancake landing if he didnt put the power on.

[ForUSimulatorVideos]

What the OUCHH :p

[SettingTheStandards]

ouch...it really did slam onto the rwy...glad that you got to see it man :)

[tbird209]

@SettingTheStandards - Wi get likkle exsytment up dis way every now an' den star!

[tbird209]

@SettingTheStandards - It look like di plane an' di groun' was doin' "Bumpa to Fenda". ....push back on it...... :-)

[LeeClaxton]

that pilot is such a loser, who couldnae have landed dat playne!!1!

[charlieiscool1000]

LOL in other words that was a touch nd go must have been a shock for the passengers onbroad

[carls261]

I've got to say i have first hand experience of this.. The flight crew and cabin crew delt with this perfectly. The pilot actaully announced what had happened and why, approx 1 minute after the inital attempt and before the second.. Everyone on board was calm and assured and kept so by the cabin crew and no one was "really freaking out".. The reason behind this was turbulence and everyone on board was told. All in all a difficult situation well handled with by virgin. Good job ladies and gents..

[TurkishSultan]

First of all,you got  very nice videos with different birds...

I gave the same "tone" like you, when i saw a MD-11 at Frankfurt am Main in germany whichs goes arround...it was a surprise for all the watchers....

Hope we can see also turkish planes on bosten soon (dont know if they fly to boston)

take care my friend

[aristotrash]

My husband was on this plane! The problem was "wind shear" that forced the plane onto the ground very hard before the ideal time. There was no communication from the cabin about what went wrong until they were on ground (the second time, that is). Also, retracting the wheels (after the first attempt) was extremely loud so maybe they were damaged. My husband is extremely calm, but apparently other people on the plane were really freaking out ... I know I would have been ...

[tbird209]

@aristotrash - Thanks for the insight. I am very happy that this ended uneventfully.

[CBermudez831]

@tbird209 WOW !!! That was unreal !!! Thank GOD they're safe.

[sean2015]

@aristotrash If an airplane approaches a runway too slow, it'll sink rapidly and you'll have a hard landing. It looks like the plane in this video was too slow. How I can tell that is, when the pilot "flared" the airplane ("flare" means to level off and gently raise the nose for landing) the plane didn't level off, it just dropped right on the deck. You can see it bounce right off the runway as the pilot applied full throttle for the go-around.

[js781ma98]

Cool video man!

I confirm it, Was there too!.

Congratulation Tbird.

[tbird209]

@js781ma98 - Thanks man! It was cool that we saw this at the same time.

[nrcurrier]

The a340-600 doesn't allow any margin for error on approach or takeoff, with its long fuselage. With the bounce that they had on landing, the only recourse was to go-around and plan for another approach to landing. Had they tried to salvage the first landing (I'm sure it wasn't allowed), they would have more than likely struck the tail and had some damage to the airframe. The "stretch" versions of some planes have little margin for tail strikes...smaller than two feet under normal conditions.

[tbird209]

@nrcurrier - Thanks for that insightful piece of information. I never thought of that before.

[mieetek]

Sorry for 3 comments. I could not see them immediately :)

[mieetek]

My bro was on that plane with his 2 small daughters. I just found it and sent it to him. Thanks for the film!

[mieetek]

My bro was on that plane with his 2 small daughters. I just found it and sent it to him. Thanks for the film!

[mieetek]

My bro was on that plane with his 2 small daughters. I just found it and sent it to him. Thanks for the film!

[BOEING74700000]

thanks for the info tbird209, 15R / 33L being so close to the international terminal i would expect to see it widely used as it makes perfect sense to me.

[k0nn0r]

Sudden tailwind? Notice how at roughly 50ft, judging by the heatblur, you can see the engines go to full throttle, yet she continues to drop like a brick. It looks remarkably like the hard landing the A380 did in Oshkosh

[blast616]

It's actually not a missed approach. It's a "balked" or "aborted" landing, on account the airplane already touched down. So ergo: approach phase complete.

[BakoFlyer24]

OOOOooooohhhh.....OOoooooooooo­hhhhhh....OOOOOOOOhhhhhhh.....

That's annoying...

By the way it was aborted landing, not a missed approach, you even labeled the video as "Aborted Landing"

All nit picking aside that was a good video

[c17patsfan]

This isn't a missed approach dumb ass woooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Its a aborted landing.....

[JFK2HKG]

@c17patsfan - You're the flipping dumb ass mate! Did you read the video title?? The bloke corrected himself when he posted the video. You're a waste of breath.

[jmg1795]

Could there have been a Runway Incursion and ATC told them to go-around? That would be a reason for going around at that point.

[ant647448336]

That was not a missed approach. A missed approach is when the pilot completely misses the runway. This was a late go around possibly due to turbulence and/or windshear.

[kernal672000]

it seems like a touch and go rather than a missed approach

[SJB173]

I think the decision was made to go around before the aircraft hit the deck

[TysonLee38]

That was not a missed approach it was simply a go around. A missed approach is when a pilot in command determines by the time the aircraft is at the decision height (for a precision approach) or missed approach point (for a non-precision approach), that the runway or its environment is not in sight, or that a safe landing cannot be accomplished for any reason, the landing approach must be discontinued and the missed approach procedure must be initiated immediately. Great Video by the way!

[SASD209]

Nice catch and vid...... good work!!!

[LeoA380]

Amazing! I saw this Go-Around on Sunday, I was Downtown by the Harbor. That's cool that you caught this on video. Yeah the Pilots didn't seem to bothered about it by the sounds of it on LiveATC. I went to the Airport later that evening and videoed it takeoff from 33L 'again'. (Will post it up soon.)

[tbird209]

@LeoA380 - Cool that you also saw it. Looking forward to your video.

[bbbbbb444]

@LeoA380 Could you post the link to the liveatc clip?i was on this flight. Thanks!

[bbbbbb444]

Cant believe you were on the ground filming this. I was on that flight coming in from London and i must say it was way more terrifying to all of us than it looks in this vid. The pilot said that we experienced wind shere on our first attempt which forced us to pull up and try again. Thankfully it went well the second time around.. it was at 5:35 pm on July 18 2010.

[efg61]

Great video! I really have to get over to KBOS to do some spotting. Do you know approx what time this happened? Id love to go over to liveatc.net and call up the KBOS tower archive when this happened.

[tbird209]

@efg61 - The initial go-around occurred at 21:23 UTC/17:23 EDT in the archive. The pilot was remarkably non-chalant.

[PalmDC10]

oooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[AACODL787]

And for the record its not a missed approach, but good video anyway!!

[PhilG380]

She was sinking like a rock there! Not really sure that counts as a missed approach...more like a, "Wow, we are back up in the air again and no more room to land on the runway," sort of deal. Cool vid.

[BOEING74700000]

looks like runway 27.....at 7000 ft long .....no wonder it was a missed approach :-)

[LeoA380]

@BOEING74700000 Nope, it's 33L... they had plenty of runway left as it's the longest there. However the Pilots reported heavy wind sheer - mainly if this happens regardless of the length of runway ahead it's a Go-Around that's required.

[BOEING74700000]

@LeoA380

......im surprised it's 33L as i thought it was rarely used..........but it is Logan :-) cramming 5 / 6 runways in less than 3000 acres makes Heathrow look so dull !

[tbird209]

@BOEING74700000 - 15R/33L, Logan's longest runway, is used pretty frequently. It's really used heavily in the winter months for some reason (maybe due to prevailing winds).

[LeoA380]

@BOEING74700000 33L is used quite often actually. Especially on days when there is a heavy westerly wind, which was a big factor on this particular day. Boston is unique with it's multiple crossing runways... Heathrow is unique in it's own way.

[BOEING74700000]

@LeoA380 thanks Leo and tbird209. I have just done some research on the airfield as it is one of my favourites, ever since i went there in 1991, BA flight from LHR - B747-200 :-) i think we landed on 22R and also took off from there also on the return leg. My fav runway is 09/27 that is so cool how it cuts across the airfield. How often is 14/32 used? as it looks to be seldom from what i gather!

[LeoA380]

@BOEING74700000 Boston is my favorite airfield too, the layout makes for some interesting views. I don't know that much about 14/32 - it seems to be a short enough runway that is only being used by Cape Air and smaller aircraft. Maybe someone else here can gives us more details.

[tbird209]

@LeoA380 - 14/32 is long enough for 50 seat regional jets as well.

[slippp40]

that thing hit the ground hard

[Carmelo33]

"She?"...its a thing, no human..still "it" please!

[ImmortalSynn]

@Carmelo33

...rather common maritime (and later aviation) practice to refer to ships of sea and air in the feminine sense-- only been in use for a few centuries now, welcome to to the 1400s. :-/

[tbird209]

@Carmelo33 - I apologize if that was somehow offensive to you. However, it has been common practice in transportation for centuries to refer to ships, airships, airplanes and sometimes cars as feminine.

[coolian2]

@Carmelo33 are you for real, it's been common practice forever to call planes/cars/etc like that. deadset.

[Marinpastorn]

@Carmelo33 She since aviation utilizes nautical terms where ships/airplanes are refered to as her or she

[blueb0g]

@Carmelo33 You've never heard a plane/ship/airship/car referred to as a "she" before...?

[vkoracx]

@Carmelo33

learn English!

[sterlingman]

Excellent capture!

[jenf777]

Wow - amazing!!! I couldn't wait to see your footage - and of course it did not disappoint. Outstanding catch, great clarity!!! 5+ stars and favorited

[flying727]

Pretty cool video, could have done without the looser who kept saying "virgin missed approooach." annoying! 

[tbird209]

@flying727 - Since I am the "looser", I will try to "tighten" up.

[jenf777]

@tbird209 No - and by the way you are awesome! Your anecdotal comments are excellent - always informative, keep them coming!!! : )

[tbird209]

@jenf777 - Thanks Jen! Right back atcha!

[xtopgun41x]

@tbird209 Could have done without the constant repeating as well. FYI that's a "rejected landing," not a go around or missed approach.

[LeoA380]

@xtopgun41x It can be called either a 'Rejected Landing' or 'Go-Around' ...both mean the same thing basically - (A Go-Around, also referred to as an Aborted landing or Rejected Landing is defined as a maneuver initiated after touchdown of the main landing gear...) In this case and many others the Flight Deck will label it directly as a Go-Around, as they did on that particular day (LiveATC).

[ionutshowcase]

You were so happy that she did a missed approach :D , nice footage , 5*****

[rumbleforce2]

wow awesome footage with Go-Around

[BlueStar167]

Nice footage. did she land safely after this?

[tbird209]

@BlueStar167 - She certainly did land safely thereafter.

[TheLiLD95]

0:33 it was not a missed approach. The aircraft touched down hard then bounced back up and she probably did not have enough runway to touch back down so she powered back up and went around. . .

[ek433]

@TheLiLD95 Yeah, if you look at 0:08 they really swipe out the power and hits the deck hard and bounces!

[tedjay]

O MY :)