<snip> Having been on a "go around" it is obvious that the pilot gets zero
notice of this. Of course the following flights aborted
<snip/>
Actually, that's not totally true (but I am nitpicking). I rode the
cockpit of a BA 757 a good few years ago onto 27R at LHR. As we turned
finals over Westminster a Virgin A340 crossed our flight path coming from
right to left and then lined up on 27L. Unfortunately he then had to
switch to 27R which then left us with very short separation. Our pilot
immediately reduced speed to minimum approach (announcing that over the
radio had the guy behind us saying he couldn't fly that slow!). It was
therefore pretty obvious that a go-around was a distinct possibility and the
pilots briefed for both the possibility of a landing and a go around. As
we continued the approach the 340 slowly pulled away from us (but only a
little). We finally got clearance to land as we crossed the car park just
before the perimeter track so, from that point of view, we got zero notice
despite having been preparing for the possibility for some minutes. So
while the decision in this case was last minute they had more than zero
notice of the possibility.
(After landing we used full autobrake and got off the runway in time for the
following aircraft to land however, that led to a brake overheat warning
which had them digging in the handbook to determine what to do next).
And, if you think about it, the same scenario that I've described is almost
certainly true for fog landings. The possibility that a go around will
occur is something that has to be allowed for. As an example, I went into
AMS in another BA 757. We broke cloud at 200ft - afterwards I asked what
the 8 on one of the VDUs had been and I was told that if they hadn't told
the system to land by 8 ft above ground the system would have overshot
automatically.
In the case of the BA 777 the immediately following aircraft would have had
minimal notice but others further back on the approarch would have had
increasing amounts of notice. I wonder if everyone who had already left
the stack completed the approach and then overshot or if they were vectored
away ?
>> Stay informed about: BA crash landing at Heathrow 
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