Controllers Say There Have Been Many Close Calls

With additional focus on airport congestion and the potential for runway incursions, one of the first maneuvers any student pilot learns is facing additional scrutiny by federal authorities: the go-around.

The Associated Press reports the FAA recently reviewed go-around procedures at three of the nation's airports, including Newark Liberty -- where the arrival ends for runways 22L, 22R and 29 intersect at the northeast corner of the field. Simultaneous approaches to those runways can result in one or more go-arounds, if the spacing isn't adequate.

Last year, authorities discontinued a go-around procedure used at Detroit Metro, which sent planes landing on 27R directly into the takeoff paths of aircraft on parallel runways 21R and 22L. Similar changes were made in Memphis, after a Northwest DC-9 landing on runway 18R flew over a commuter plane going around on intersecting runway 27 due to a mechanical issue. In that case, controllers told the RJ to stay low over the runway, to avoid the Northwest plane.

Go-arounds haven't been cited as the cause for any accidents or midair collisions involving commercial airliners for over 30 years... but controllers are concerned about the close calls that could have gone the other way. A review of tower logs at eight airports conducted by the AP found over 1,500 go-arounds in the last six months of last year.

"We can go 99 percent of the time and not have a problem. But it only takes one," said John Wallin, president of the Memphis branch of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

The overwhelming cause of go-arounds has to do with improper spacing -- an aircraft on final approach is too close to landing traffic ahead, or a plane that hasn't yet cleared the active. That's a particular problem at the nation's busiest airports, where planes land and depart as often as every two minutes.

Shifting winds can also lead to go-arounds, as can runway incursions by taxiing aircraft or ground vehicles. And, usually, they're a non-event, stressed 20-year airline pilot Ralph Paduano.

"We're trained in that maneuver, so it's not a tense situation," said Paduano, who now flies for Continental. "But you have to really be on the ball; you can't be complacent about it."

Pilots are familiar with the mechanics of a go-around; whether in a single-engine Cessna or a Boeing 747, the forces at work are the same. Pilots must quickly reconfigure a "dirty" plane -- flaps and slats out, traveling low and slow on approach to the runway -- to fly again. In a commercial airliner, flight crews must also factor in the lag time for turbofan powerplants to spool up to full-power.

At Newark, nearly half of the close to 300 go-around recorded between August 2007 and January 2008 were caused by runway "ties," with planes approaching intersecting runways at the same time and at roughly the same spacing. To avoid potential conflicts, controllers at Newark have taken to "staggering" arrivals on intersecting runways.

"You have about eight miles, or about two minutes, to figure it out and make it work" after approach control hands off a landing aircraft to the tower, said Ray Adams, vice president of the controllers union at the airport. "It comes down to how busy you are and what your skill level is. You have to make some serious moves pretty early to get the sequence to work out."

At the behest of the Department of Transportation's Inspector General, the FAA is now reviewing landing procedures at Newark. So far, the FAA told the AP, it's "found no safety issues" since the staggering procedure was implemented last year.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.natca.org, www.metroairport.com, www.panynj.gov/CommutingTravel/airports/html/newarkliberty.html