We were scheduled to fly from Bengaluru to Goa and were to depart
from terminal 2 of KIA Bengaluru. We were there well in advance,
spent some time looking around the splendor of the new terminal,
experienced whatever the lounge had to offer and boarded the flight.
The pre-departure experience was fine.
The flight took off from Bengaluru on time. I read for some time and dozed
for about half an hour. After some time, I experienced some turbulence
and realised that we were in the clouds and were on our way down.
Looking out of the window, I saw the mining pits of Sanvordem, the
roof of MRF and Nestle, the Verna industrial estate, the new six lane
highway crossing the river Zuari and then the BITS Goa campus located
close to the airport.
The captain made an announcement and the flight started the steep descent.
It crossed the Zuari industries and the highway, past the Airport fence and
touched down with a strong bump. It seemed to raise a bit, appeared to
have made a second touch and instead of slowing down, gained speed
again! Even before I could realise what was happening, we were airborne
once more.
I knew there was something wrong and that it was serious. There were
butterflies in my stomach. But when I found that the aircraft was stable
and steadily gaining height, I calmed down and after noticing that it was
banking and had started making a U turn, I felt that things should be OK.
But there is no escaping the fact that all of us had been very close to our
last few seconds on this planet. I don’t think many of my co-passengers
realised that a disaster had just been averted.
In retrospect, I feel that the plane touched down with more speed than
usual. Maybe the pilots noticed that they would be short of the runway
and decided to take off, instead of trying to stop and overshooting the
runway. It is also possible that they experienced a sudden gush of cross
wind and decided to take off instead of veering away from the runway.
These are my guesses. I enquired with the cabin crew after landing but
they had just as much information as I did.
I dont know whether I should thank the Pilots or my fate. But I am glad
that I am back in my home and typing this. I am curious to know what
exactly happened. If I get to know, I will come back with details. Meanwhile,
I felt like sharing this unusual experience and hence, you are reading this.
Bye.
I sent the above write up to a friend, who is an experienced pilot and
got the following
response.
Response : As for my view on the experience,
It is a little difficult to be sure about what might have happened without
actually being in the cockpit or speaking to someone who was in the cockpit
at the time. My best guess would be same as your father's first assumption.
1. They may have come in too high on the final approach and as a result
touched down out of the ideal touchdown zone (roughly the first 25%) on the
the runway. When that happens there may not be enough runway to stop the
aircraft and the aircraft can go off the runway which can be disastrous. In this
situation, it seems like the cockpit crew realised this and aborted the landing
and carried out a Go Around maneuver (a maneuver where the landing is
aborted on final approach or after touchdown and the aircraft climbs to a certain
height and attempts another landing or diverts to another field)
2. They may have come in at the correct height but may have been too fast
and resulted in the same outcome of touchdown towards the mid or second
half of the runway and eventually carried out a go around.
3. Could be a combination of 1. and 2. Resulting in a go around.
I think the crosswind explanation is possible but less likely because Goa is
not one of the airfields where crosswind is a major concern.
What happened here is technically called a balked landing. Where a landing
is rejected very close to the ground or sometimes even after touchdown.
The engines are producing very little power when coming for landing and
close to the ground. From this state for the engines to start producing
maximum power in order to start climbing again it takes a few seconds.
This lag for the engines to go from low power state to max power is due
to design. And it is this lag in the power delivery of the engines is what c
aused the second touchdown. Momentum would have carried the aircraft
in the air after the first touchdown and lag in power delivery caused the
aircraft to sink and cause the second touchdown and as the engines reach
max power the aircraft will have started climbing again.
Ideally this landing should have been aborted at a much earlier stage.
It is extremely unlikely if the aircraft is on the correct height profile and speed
on final approach to end up in this situation. However, they did have the
good sense to do the right thing albeit at the very last stage.
I know my reply is very long and detailed 😂. But I wanted to explain
certain concepts so that he will understand the explanation better.
I hope this helps.
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