{"id":278969,"date":"2026-04-09T13:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/the-go-around-decision-that-saves-lives-and-why-pilots-still-hesitate\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T16:03:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T14:03:37","slug":"the-go-around-decision-that-saves-lives-and-why-pilots-still-hesitate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/the-go-around-decision-that-saves-lives-and-why-pilots-still-hesitate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Go-Around Decision That Saves Lives (And Why Pilots Still Hesitate)"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n\n<p>There is no safer manoeuvre in aviation than a go-around. The data is clear. The accidents prevented by a go-around vastly outnumber any accidents caused by performing one. And yet, pilots worldwide resist it with a stubbornness that baffles anyone looking at the numbers.<\/p>\n\n<p>A go-around sounds simple: if your approach isn\u2019t stable, abandon the landing and climb back to altitude for another try. That\u2019s it. But the human element makes it complex. When a pilot is committed to a landing, actually executing a go-around means overriding months of momentum, decisions, and expectations. It means telling air traffic control, your passengers, your scheduling officer, and your own pride that something isn\u2019t right.<\/p>\n\n<p>The cost of not going around is occasionally catastrophic. The cost of going around is always just a few extra minutes and some fuel. And yet, every year, pilots land in conditions they should have waved off.<\/p>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What a Go-Around Actually Is<\/h2>\n\n<p>A go-around isn\u2019t an emergency procedure. It\u2019s a normal part of flying. It\u2019s the procedure you practice in flight training, execute safely hundreds of times in a career, and should do whenever your approach doesn\u2019t meet your landing criteria. The mechanics are straightforward: apply full power, establish a positive rate of climb, retract the landing gear, clean up the flaps progressively, and climb to a safe altitude.<\/p>\n\n<p>The decision to execute a go-around can be made by the pilot flying, the pilot monitoring, air traffic control, or (in some airlines) even by a system like a terrain awareness warning system. It doesn\u2019t require a malfunction. Weather changing unexpectedly. Another aircraft not vacating the runway. An unstable approach. A medical emergency on board. A flock of birds. In airline operations, a go-around is not a sign of failure. It\u2019s a sign that procedures are working.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;border-left:4px solid #0066cc;padding:16px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:4px\">\n<h3 style=\"margin-top:0\">Quick Facts: Go-Around Reality<\/h3>\n<ul style=\"margin:12px 0;padding-left:20px\">\n<li>Go-around rate: Air carriers average 0.5\u20131.5 go-arounds per 1,000 approaches<\/li>\n<li>Unstable approach threshold: Below 500 feet on final, specific descent rate and alignment limits apply<\/li>\n<li>Asiana 214 (2013): Pilots descended below stabilization criteria; go-around not executed<\/li>\n<li>Plan continuation bias: cognitive tendency to continue committed plans despite contrary evidence<\/li>\n<li>Training evolution: Major airlines now use go-around scenarios in nearly every simulator session<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=501412297  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/3\/33\/Airplane_in_the_landing_approach_flight_to_Shizuoka_Airport._And_Nomanji_Temple_Cycad.jpg\/960px-Airplane_in_the_landing_approach_flight_to_Shizuoka_Airport._And_Nomanji_Temple_Cycad.jpg\" alt=\"Airplane on approach to landing\" style=\"display:block;width:100%!important;max-width:100%!important;height:auto!important;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Commercial aircraft in approach configuration descending toward runway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Psychology of Plan Continuation Bias<\/h2>\n\n<p>You\u2019ve planned this flight for months. You\u2019ve filed the flight plan, done the weight and balance, briefed the approach, coordinated with approach control, been vectored by ATC, descended through clouds, and broken out. You\u2019re on final approach with the runway in sight. Twelve thousand pounds of fuel burned. Every decision that got you here feels like it was right.<\/p>\n\n<p>And now something is slightly off. The wind shifted. The ceiling is lower than reported. The descent is shallower than it should be. Nothing is wrong, exactly. But nothing is quite right either.<\/p>\n\n<p>This is the moment when plan continuation bias takes over. It\u2019s not a willful choice. It\u2019s a cognitive bias as powerful as any in psychology. You\u2019ve committed to a plan \u2014 getting to this airport, landing on this runway, on this approach. Your brain has invested in that plan. Abandoning it feels like a loss. The brain naturally resists loss. So pilots rationalize. \u201cI can steepen this descent a bit more.\u201d \u201cThe wind might calm down.\u201d \u201cThe runway is long enough if I need to use most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>And the farther down the approach you go, the stronger this bias becomes. At 2,000 feet, a go-around feels inconvenient. At 500 feet, it feels embarrassing. At 200 feet, it feels desperate. But the safety threshold doesn\u2019t change. Unstable at 200 feet is still unstable at 200 feet.<\/p>\n\n<p>Professional pilots call this \u201cget-there-itis\u201d \u2014 the deep human urge to complete the mission once you\u2019ve started it. It\u2019s probably saved humanity in a thousand contexts. It\u2019s also killed pilots.<\/p>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">When Failing to Go Around Ended in Disaster<\/h2>\n\n<p><strong>Asiana Airlines Flight 214, July 2013.<\/strong> Boeing 777 on approach to San Francisco. The pilots had disabled the autothrottle incorrectly, and the aircraft descended into a shallower glide slope than required. At 1,500 feet, they should have recognized an unstable approach. They didn\u2019t. At 500 feet, the stabilization criteria for continuing approach were clearly violated. They continued anyway. The aircraft struck the seawall short of the runway, killing three passengers and injuring dozens. The investigation concluded that a go-around at any point after 1,500 feet would have prevented the accident entirely.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Turkish Airlines Flight 1951, February 2009.<\/strong> Boeing 737 approaching Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam during poor weather. The instrument landing system (ILS) wasn\u2019t functioning properly, giving inaccurate glide slope information. The pilots should have gone around when their altitude didn\u2019t match the runway configuration they saw. They descended anyway, struck the ground 1 km short of the runway, and killed nine of the 135 people on board. A go-around when the picture didn\u2019t match the plan would have prevented this entirely.<\/p>\n\n<p>These aren\u2019t anomalies. They\u2019re warnings. And they keep occurring because the bias is genuinely difficult to overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=1605775690  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/b\/b4\/JetBlue_A321neo_landing_in_the_fog_over_Runway_22L_lights_at_Boston.jpg\/960px-JetBlue_A321neo_landing_in_the_fog_over_Runway_22L_lights_at_Boston.jpg\" alt=\"Aircraft landing in fog\" style=\"display:block;width:100%!important;max-width:100%!important;height:auto!important;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Commercial aircraft on final approach in low visibility conditions requiring precision instrument approach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Statistics That Explain Why We Still Hesitate<\/h2>\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the thing that surprises everyone: major air carriers execute go-arounds at a rate of roughly 0.5 to 1.5 per thousand approaches. That sounds low until you think about the absolute numbers. The United States alone has about 40,000 commercial flights per day. At 1 go-around per thousand approaches, that\u2019s 40 go-arounds per day in the US alone. Multiply that globally. Most go-arounds are uneventful. Weather changes. Another aircraft doesn\u2019t vacate. A go-around is executed, altitude is regained, and the next approach is stable.<\/p>\n\n<p>General aviation go-around rates are much harder to quantify because general aviation doesn\u2019t report every approach. But accident data tells the story. In accident investigations, \u201cfailed to go-around\u201d or \u201ccontinued unstable approach\u201d appears in the probable cause section far too often.<\/p>\n\n<p>The cost-benefit analysis is staggering. A typical go-around for a commercial flight costs a few hundred dollars in fuel and reserves crew duty time, delaying arrival by maybe 15 minutes. A crash from a go-around that wasn\u2019t executed costs hundreds of millions of dollars and lives that can\u2019t be recovered.<\/p>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">How Training Is Evolving to Build the Courage to Wave Off<\/h2>\n\n<p>Modern airline training has fundamentally changed in the last decade. Go-around scenarios are no longer an occasional training event. They\u2019re integrated into nearly every simulator session. Not just go-arounds, but go-arounds from uncomfortable situations. Go-arounds at 300 feet when the landing seemed assured. Go-arounds when air traffic control said \u201cclear to land\u201d but something felt wrong.<\/p>\n\n<p>The goal isn\u2019t to teach pilots how to go around \u2014 they all know that. The goal is to recalibrate their instinctive response to uncertainty. If enough of a pilot\u2019s training has been spent waving off unstable approaches, then on the line, waving off becomes the automatic response, not the desperate exception.<\/p>\n\n<p>Some airlines have even changed their policies on how go-arounds are discussed in debriefs. Instead of asking \u201cwhy did the pilot go around?\u201d (implying it was questionable), they ask \u201cdid the pilot go around when they should have?\u201d (implying it might have been overdue). The language matters. Culture matters.<\/p>\n\n<p>In general aviation, where training is more variable, organizations like the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and local flight schools are pushing harder on go-around scenarios. The FAA\u2019s proficiency standards for instrument-rated pilots now explicitly include go-around manoeuvres under various weather and wind conditions.<\/p>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Moment That Changes Everything<\/h2>\n\n<p>Every professional pilot has a moment when the go-around clicked. Maybe it was a near-miss on approach that forced a wave-off. Maybe it was a simulator session where the instructor threw in an equipment failure on short final. Or maybe it was just the hundredth time executing a go-around in training, when it stopped feeling like an emergency and started feeling normal.<\/p>\n\n<p>After that moment, the decision becomes easier. You\u2019re not overriding plan continuation bias with willpower. You\u2019re overriding it with habit. And habit is stronger than bias.<\/p>\n\n<p>The safest pilots aren\u2019t those who never encounter unstable approaches. They\u2019re the ones who recognize instability and have trained so thoroughly on the go-around response that the decision feels automatic. Not reckless. Not conservative. Just clear.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Sources: National Transportation Safety Board accident reports (Asiana 214, Turkish Airlines 1951), FAA Advisory Circular AC 120-71B on stabilized approach procedures, aircraft manufacturer flight training manuals, cognitive bias research in aviation decision-making, ICAO Annex 6 operational standards<\/em><\/p>\n\n<!-- mf-faq -->\n\n<div class=\"mf-faq-block\"><style>.mf-faq-block{margin:34px 0}.mf-faq-item:not([open]) .mf-faq-answer{display:none !important}.mf-faq-block h2.mf-faq-h{padding-top:22px;margin-bottom:14px}.mf-faq-item{border:1px solid #e2e8f5;border-radius:8px;margin:0 0 10px;background:#fff}.mf-faq-item summary{list-style:none;cursor:pointer;padding:15px 50px 15px 18px;font-weight:600;color:#1a1a1a;position:relative;line-height:1.45;user-select:none}.mf-faq-item summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mf-faq-item summary::after{content:\"+\";position:absolute;right:18px;top:50%;transform:translateY(-50%);font-size:1.5em;font-weight:400;color:#5C91FF;line-height:1}.mf-faq-item[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mf-faq-item[open] summary{border-bottom:1px solid #eef1f8}.mf-faq-item summary:hover{background:#f5f8ff}.mf-faq-answer{padding:14px 18px;color:#333;line-height:1.6}.mf-faq-answer p{margin:0}.mf-faq-answer a{color:#5C91FF}<\/style><h2 class=\"mf-faq-h\">Related Questions<\/h2><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What is a go-around in aviation?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>A go-around is when a pilot aborts a landing and climbs away to try again. It is a normal, trained safety manoeuvre rather than a failure, executed when an approach is unstable, the runway is not clear, or conditions are not right. Air carriers average 0.5 to 1.5 go-arounds per 1,000 approaches.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What is a stabilized approach?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>A stabilized approach means the aircraft is properly configured, on the correct path and speed, and aligned with the runway by a set height, typically 500 feet on final. If those criteria are not met below that gate, airline procedures call for an immediate go-around rather than continuing the descent.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What caused the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco in 2013 after the pilots descended below stabilization criteria on approach and did not execute a go-around. It became a textbook example of plan continuation bias, the cognitive tendency to continue a committed plan despite evidence that it is unsafe.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>How often do go-arounds happen?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>Go-arounds are uncommon but routine: air carriers average roughly 0.5 to 1.5 per 1,000 approaches, and major airlines now rehearse them in nearly every simulator session. The manoeuvre demands the same discipline as other high-stakes landings, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/night-carrier-landings-most-dangerous-routine-aviation\/\">night carrier landings<\/a>.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>Why do pilots hesitate to go around?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>Pilots sometimes hesitate because of plan continuation bias, the instinct to push on with a landing they have committed to despite mounting warning signs. Training now counters this directly. The danger is greatest when fatigue or pressure combines with <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/the-worlds-most-dangerous-airport-approaches\/\">a challenging or dangerous airport approach<\/a>.<\/p><\/div><\/details><\/div>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What is a go-around in aviation?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"A go-around is when a pilot aborts a landing and climbs away to try again. It is a normal, trained safety manoeuvre rather than a failure, executed when an approach is unstable, the runway is not clear, or conditions are not right. Air carriers average 0.5 to 1.5 go-arounds per 1,000 approaches.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What is a stabilized approach?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"A stabilized approach means the aircraft is properly configured, on the correct path and speed, and aligned with the runway by a set height, typically 500 feet on final. If those criteria are not met below that gate, airline procedures call for an immediate go-around rather than continuing the descent.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What caused the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco in 2013 after the pilots descended below stabilization criteria on approach and did not execute a go-around. 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The danger is greatest when fatigue or pressure combines with <a href=\\\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/the-worlds-most-dangerous-airport-approaches\/\\\">a challenging or dangerous airport approach<\/a>.\"}}]}<\/script><!-- \/mf-faq -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is no safer manoeuvre in aviation than a go-around. The data is clear. The accidents prevented by a go-around vastly outnumber any accidents caused by performing one. And yet, pilots worldwide resist it with a stubbornness that baffles anyone looking at the numbers. A go-around sounds simple: if your approach isn\u2019t stable, abandon the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":279650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why Pilots Avoid Go-Arounds (And Why That\u2019s Dangerous)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Explore plan continuation bias, real accidents, and why the safest manoeuvre is also the hardest decision. 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