What constitutes a near miss?
Posted by Grouchy_Olive_7932@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 18 comments
My family and I were on Frontier flight 4797 from RDU to ATL this morning and at 1,000 ft, we went from wheels down and almost landing, to sudden, incredibly full power and right back up.
A few minutes later, the pilots came on and said there was a small aircraft not moving on the runway, so we had to abort landing. My daughter was completely panicking, and while I talked her through it, I definitely found myself wondering a few things.
- Who makes the call to abort the landing?
- Did the pilots have eyes and say screw this and go back up, or does ATC tell them at the last second?
- I think our speed was 198 (after rewatching on FlightAware) when we went full power and back up, which makes me think we were seconds from landing since we were only 1000 feet up? But what do I know?
- Is this considered a near miss?
I process things over and over, and would love insight into this.
Grouchy_Olive_7932@reddit (OP)
Thank you for posting the ATC audio. Sounds like the pilots made the call to go around.
Regular-Coffee-1670@reddit
This is completely normal. One of the checks on final approach is "runway clear", and if it's not clear, you go around. I've done it dozens of times over my career.
Don't think of this as poor procedures almost causing an accident. Think of it as good procedures preventing one.
Grouchy_Olive_7932@reddit (OP)
That's exactly what I told my panicking kid. I said something like the pilots have plan b, c, d and more. It helped both of us.
Regular-Coffee-1670@reddit
That's good to hear! In fact, "going around" is really the default behavior. You go around, unless everything is exactly correct for landing. As you say, they had a plan, which they would have already briefed (ie: talked through), on the off-chance this would happen. When it did, following the plan was easy.
fliesupsidedown@reddit
A landing is just a failed go-around
oranges1cle@reddit
We really just have a plan B - go around. Not to freak you out, I just prefer being honest about what we do.
jcla@reddit
Here's your flight: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a9af3e&lat=33.652&lon=-84.452&zoom=14.2&showTrace=2025-04-25&leg=2&trackLabels
You were about a mile from the landing point when the pilots went around, or about a minute or two from landing. This is totally normal and safe and was not at all a near miss.
The ATC likely told the pilots to go around when the departing flight took longer to get off the ground than expected. ATC is monitoring the aircraft using that runway and are keenly aware of the sequencing and gap. The procedures to go around are published and known to the pilots and are designed to keep the aircraft away from any other traffic. The A321 you were flying on has a nice simple button press to automate the go around, which will safely apply power and climb out.
The pilots would also have been aware of the traffic and could have independently made the decision to go around, but they usually wouldn't at that distance, there is still plenty of time for the plane to depart and safely land.
Acrobatic-Gain9697@reddit
A nice simple button ? Put the THR levers in the TOGA detent of you want to go around, nothing else
RyzOnReddit@reddit
A mile is like 30 seconds at that point, fwiw, but still plenty of space to go around safely.
ikpmflyn@reddit
It happens once in a while. I was a young pilot (100-ish hours) when I did my first go-around due to another aircraft on the runway. The tower kept asking the other aircraft if he was ready to go, as another aircraft was on short final - he answered that he was ready, but never moved. I declared go-around and went full power, just as I had been instructed. The tower cancelled the takeoff clearance for the other aircraft, and ordered him off the runway. The controller then thanked me for going around and avoiding a hazardous situation.
Random61504@reddit
I've never done a go-around for traffic, but I've done many for winds. We almost had to do one, tower had a Southwest 737 lined up when we are on a less than 2 mile final. They let him go before we needed to go around and since we were so much slower, it was not an issue. We were prepared to, my instructor already told me that we might be going around.
Existing_Royal_3500@reddit
1000 ft up on the glide path is plenty of room for a go around. You'd be surprised how much redundant planning goes into a flight like enough fuel to do that go around and safely divert to an alternative airport.
SweetRelationship951@reddit
I was on this flight too and was a bit shaken up at first. Glad to know this wasn’t the near miss I was imagining. Thank you for asking these questions!
Speedbird223@reddit
I’m only a passenger but have experienced maybe 8 go arounds. They aren’t super rare, am sure most frequent flyers have had one.
1000ft above the ground sounds fairly high for a go around. That’s about 3 miles out so at landing speed more than a minute from landing.
Grouchy_Olive_7932@reddit (OP)
Thank you for the insight! I'm a big fan of flying and watching planes, but know absolutely nothing about the actual process of flying (obviously). The feedback is much appreciated!!
EliteEthos@reddit
1) the pilot generally. ATC can send you around too
2) it can be either.
3) you weren’t 1000 feet up if you were about to land. Minimums on an ILS approach are often about 300 feet up.
4) not at all
Texian84@reddit
As in who makes the call to abort the landing? The tower can tell the pilot to go around due to whatever issue but the PIC or pilot in command always has the final decision based on the information he or she has at that point of time. Meaning if they see something wrong on approach that tower has not warned them about the pilot always has the final say, they are the ones making the decisions in the cockpit.
Yarstar@reddit
Either ATC or the pilot could have made the call to “go around”, but ultimately it is the pilots decision. These things happen all of the time. While still being at 1000 feet, there was plenty of time and it was more than likely a precautionary call. I would not call it a near miss, but the move prevented the possibility of a near miss from occurring. Just the pilots and ATC doing their job and making a safe call