Noncompliance with operator go-around policies represents the greatest threat to flight safety today, according to a Flight Safety Foundation study that found that pilots consider current policy criteria unrealistic and managers often are unaware of the risks of noncompliance.1
The final report on the Go-Around Decision-Making and Execution Project, released in March, said that 83 percent of runway excursions and 54 percent of all accidents could have been avoided if the flight crew had decided to go around.
However, because the industry’s compliance with go-around policies is poor — with compliance in only about 3 percent of unstable approaches — accidents persist, the report said.
“Why is a critical policy designed to prevent the most common type of accident ignored by flight crews, and why is that policy not being managed effective…
