TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin AIR FRANCE ABORTS LANDING AFTER TOUCHDOWN

When in doubt, go around.

Had go arounds before, but not after touch down.

Better safe than sorry

Looks like he was quite high and long on the approach and decided to go-around before the wheels touched the tarmac but during the flare. I wonder if the cockpit voice system sounded off with a "Pull Up!"...

This had to be a new pilot to PJIA runway, his first approach was WAY to deep into the runway!! Even if he could land it, chances are, he might have run out of runway!! Even his second, was deep!! Super hard on the brakes. Thank God for good training!!!

Zanshin--that's what I thought==way too deep on the runway. Thank goodness he did go around. I feel sorry for the people on that plane though, as I would have been scared to death.

I happened to be watching the Maho webcam at the time and saw it happen live, pretty bizarre….

I've been on a plane with an aborted landing, and it's scary as sh$t! I just closed my eyes and waited for the impact of whatever it was we were trying to avoid hitting. After we got back up, the pilot announced that we were a little too high so he was going to try it again.

It wasn't a huge distance too far on the first approach but definitely missed the aiming point so the GA was appropriate (and they gave the reason as "unstable approach"). Actually touched down slightly before the aiming point markers second time - wanted to make sure I guess.
Dave.

Us too. We where landing and could see the Sunset Beach Bar out our window and all of a sudden the plane shot straight up. I still have the marks in my thigh my wife left me. Was a rain squall that caused the abort.

Curious, an unstable approach could be due to many things but I couldn't see any rain on final in the video. I would have thought if rain obscured the view (of the runway and PAPI lights) on final they would have gone around at that point not after touchdown.
Dave.

The FAA statistics show that the odds of an accident or incident go way up on a second landing attempt after a missed approach. As an ex-pilot, I have to admit that my pulse does go up significantly as a passenger on a commercial flight after a go-around. In that case, I make sure to have my shoes on tight and be cognizant of where the nearest exits forward and aft are. I've had many a go-around while flying and the second (and third) approaches are always tense.

Agreed but to try and reassure nervous flyers the FAA (NTSB?) stats are probably dominated by private flying incidents not commercial air passenger ones and AFAIK no paying passenger has ever been hurt in a landing accident at Juliana (although Westjet came pretty close in 2017).
Dave.

CYOWDave - After wondering about what happened to Westjet in 2017 I noticed your link. Thanks for that, it explained everything.

I was sitting on my airport-side balcony at Royal Islander for that one. I went upstairs from the pool because it had started to rain. I thought he was going in the drink - he was so low and off course. Very, very scary.