Dangerous Flight Maneuvers at U.S. Airports?

SelectPlusDangerous Flight Maneuvers at U.S. Airports?Dangerous Flight Maneuvers at U.S. Airports?The Associated PressEach year thousands of planes are forced to pull up at runways at major American cities. The maneuver is called a 'go around.' As Ted Shaffrey reports, some are concerned about the safety of this practice.((Newark, NJ)) Last December Howard Kronberg (Krawn-berg) was a passenger on a flight about to touch down at the airport in Newark, New Jersey, when he feared his life was over. ((Howard Kronberg, Airline Passenger)) "It's a catastrophic accident waiting to happen." The pilot was forced to pull up suddenly, aborting the landing, because another plane hadn't cleared the runway ahead of it. "We immediately climbed drastically to altitude." NATS: go around. They are called "go arounds" and they happen thousands of times a year at U-S airports, according to an Associated Press review of tower logs from eight of the nation's busiest airports. It's when air traffic controllers clear a plane to land but have to abort the landing, and order the plane to circle around. They are a symptom of severe air traffic congestion. At some airports, controllers say they increase the risk of a mid-air collision with another aircraft. NATS: Controllers like Mike Reilly, who works at Newark Liberty International Airport, say they are unavoidable. ((Michael Reilly, Air Traffic Controller)) "You got a get it right the first time, if you don't, you gotta take the safe route and send one around T AKE VO: You better be good, and we are good, but it's not fun, it gets your adrenaline going, a little too much going." Controllers say they are under a lot of pressure to keep traffic moving. "There's pressure, the airlines gotta spend a lot of money on gas these days, the more they are in the air, the more gas they are using, they want the planes on the ground." With growing demand from the public for air travel, it's not clear how the congestion problem can be fixed. And from airport to airport, controllers say there are no clear cut procedures how to deal with "go arounds." "we wanna do it standardized, not by the seat of our pants, which is what we're doing now." The F-A-A says it is reviewing "go around" procedures at several U-S airports, after the N-T-S-B called "go around" procedures at some of them, deficient. Something passengers like Howard Kronberg say they already knew. Ted Shaffrey, The Associated Press, Newark, New Jersey

Channel: News & Politics
Uploaded: July 3, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Author: AssociatedPress

Length: 02:09
Rating: 2.44
Views: 7480

Tags: airport  airports?  dangerous  flight  go-arounds  maneuvers  u.s.  

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