Aviation is a well oil, global travel machine and it has an excellent track record, but every now an then, there are hiccups. On the 29th of August 2024, Air France flight AF1162 on the suffered not from one, not from two of those hiccups but… five!
AF1162 is a scheduled flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Tenerife South–Reina Sofía Airport. As all airports on the sea shore, TFS can have challenging winds at times, as is the case in Madeira for example, making the approach interesting, to put it nicely.
The first approach of AF1162 in Tenerife south airport resulted in a go-around – the formal name of interrupting a landing and taking a second chance. Nothing really unusual so far, and nobody would even mention it.
After flying up and away, the Airbus A320 registered F-HEPI came back for a second approach. And this second attempt also resulted into a go-around. That is statistically interesting because it is rare that the same aircraft flies two go-arounds before landing safely. But bear with us, this is only the beginning…
After the second go-around, AF1162 went for one more attempt. The air traffic controllers sent it a bit further away before the next attempt, maybe on request of the crew, to take some time to debrief and prepare, or to accommodate other incoming aircraft.
The third approach also ended-up in a go-around! And this time, the crew decided to divert to Gran Canaria airport, on the neighbouring island, where it landed uneventfully. End of the story? Not quite…
After a bit more than two hours on the ground, the F-HEPI was on the way to Tenerife again. Apparently, passengers were not on board and it is unclear if this was their decision or if there was a misunderstanding between Air France, the ground handling in LPA and the passengers. But this is not the point here…
The flight from Gran Canaria to Tenerife also had to go-around on its first approach, making it the fourth consecutive missed-approach at TFS for the day. The Air France crew decided to keep going and to gave it one more try. So here they go, their fifth attempt to land and, believe it or not… this also ended up into a go-around. At this stage, the crew decided to call it a day and went back to Gran Canaria, where they did land normally.
It is only on the next day that AF1162 finally landed at Tenerife South, on their first attempt.
What can be said at this stage with information available from the outside?
First of all, nobody died. Passengers were certainly unhappy and frustrated but everybody was safe at all times, which is definitely better than the alternative.
Go-arounds can happen for a variety of reasons, from an approach not within the required parameters, to the runway being occupied by another aircraft or vehicle, unruly passengers in the cabin and some more. It is not clear if all the five go-arounds were caused by winds or if other factors were at play, but five go-arounds by the same aircraft, at the same airport, on the same day, is definitely a statistical oddity and Air France will certainly investigate it.
From what can be seen on FlightRadar24 – and remember, this is not an official source and is definitely not validated for ATC or for operational use, especially at low altitude and with such a zoom in – all five attempts were aborted very close to the ground, which indicates a last-second go-around, making it more likely – speculation warning – initiated by the crew than by ATC.
The reported winds were strong during the whole period but not rather aligned with the runway. Other flights did land during the whole episode and we could not find other go-arounds.
Many questions are open and Air France will likely discuss them, at least internally:
- Is this just a statistical hiccup?
- Were some of the go-arounds triggered by other causes than the winds?
- Were the meteorological situation significantly different than was reported and forecasted?
- Did human factors like fatigue, stress, pressure to “get there” play a role?
We’ll keep our eyes and ears open and will publish updates if something becomes publicly available.
But for now, just remember: nobody died nor got hurt.
Pictures in this article are all from FlightRadar24‘s website.
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