On 5 July, in the early hours of the morning, Miguel Angel he was the right man at the right time at El Prat airport in Barcelona. He managed to capture in a video material a delicate situation in which there were two airliners.
An airplane Boeing 767-300 (VQ-BSX) under UTair livery the UT5187 flight from Moscow operated. This was in the landing phase for runway 02 of the Catalan airport. At the same time, an aircraft A340-300 (LV-FPV) under the colors of the operator Aerolíneas Argentinas committed to cross the same runway, having the destination runway 25R for take-off. Under these conditions, pilots on the B767 UTair aircraft decided to go around.
After this maneuver, Boeing 767-300 (VQ-BSX) UTair returned to landing smoothly on runway 02, while the aircraft A340-300 (LV-FPV) Aerolineas Argentinas took off for Buenos Aires.
How close the two aircraft were, what the critical point was, and whether they were on the verge of a collision, we cannot know exactly. An investigation has been opened in this case and we are waiting for clear and concrete information. I would not dramatize, analyzing the images, but here the rule was applied very well: "it is better to prevent than to treat".
And because the press exaggerated in this case, which reminded me of a similar situation that happened in Otopeni, I want to tell you about the procedure "Go-around".
In aviation, all actions are based on very well established, well coordinated, carefully supervised procedures. Go-around is a procedure whereby the aircraft abandons the landing procedure, rotates the engines to the maximum and climbs to an established flight ceiling, preparing for a new landing procedure.
(photo: wikipedia.org)
The initiation of the go-around procedure can be commanded by an air traffic controller or the pilot-in-command of the aircraft. There are very few cases when this procedure is applied and all are based on passenger safety. For the landing to be operated safely, several factors must be met. If one of the factors does not match, the go-around procedure is initiated and a new landing is attempted. But that does not mean that everything is always on the verge of tragedy.
All's well that ends well!