Presumed-versus-actual practices of airline pilots during unstabilized approaches are receiving close scrutiny in the light of flight data analyses shared by governments and industry. Yet a basic principle still applies, say subject matter experts. “Airlines should emphasize to flight crews the importance of making the proper go-around decision if their landing approach exhibits any element of an unstabilized approach,” said a recent article in Boeing Aero.1
Mitigating risk of the go-around maneuver itself has to be factored into every decision, according to Dave Carbaugh, a captain and chief pilot, flight operations safety, Boeing Test and Evaluation. He sees the unstabilized approach as just one reason among many well-known scenarios for conducting the maneuver, and he wants all pilots to know key lessons learned from incidents and accidents associated with the decision to go around.
In November 2014, he made a presentation to Flight Safety Foundation’s 67…
