Aborted airport landings add to series of US aviation incidents

An American Airlines plane aborted its landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to avoid another aircraft departing on the same runway, the latest in an alarming series of US aviation incidents in recent weeks.

The jet was ordered by air traffic controllers to perform a “go-around” Tuesday morning to ensure sufficient separation between the planes, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The manoeuvre, which can be requested by a pilot or controller, repositions the plane to make another landing approach.

Less than two hours after the incident in Washington, a Southwest Airlines plane at Chicago Midway International Airport narrowly avoided a possible collision with a smaller business jet that crossed the runway.

The American flight from Boston “landed safely and normally,” the airline said in a statement Wednesday. “A go-around is not an abnormal flight manoeuvre and can occur nearly every day in the national airspace system.”

Aviation experts said the manoeuvres were not entirely uncommon on commercial flights for various reasons, from bad weather to a deer walking on the runway. Pilots can execute a go-around manoeuvre without much notice from passengers if the plane is still flying high enough on its approach.

“It probably happens more than you and I realise,” said Robert Joslin, a professor of practice at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s College of Aviation in Daytona Beach, Florida. “It’s not always just because (the plane) is getting ready to hit somebody.”