Quote:
Originally Posted by Didace
Recently I flew into MSP. We landed on the left runway and I was sitting at a window on the right side. As we turned right to go to our gate I was able to see the next plane for takeoff already sitting on the runway as well as the next plane coming in to land. For whatever reason I decided to watch to see both the takeoff and landing.
The plane on the runway did not move for what I thought was a long time and of course the incoming plane kept getting closer. I just started to think, "this is getting too close" when the plane on the runway moved and turned off the runway just as the incoming plane pulled up to go around.
What could have caused the delay on the runway? I know it would just be a guess but my thought was that the pilots had to have received some sort of warning light.
And how close can the incoming plane get before calling off the landing? Judging from how fast it flew over us there is no way it could have made the landing even if the other plane would have taken off as normal. Were they just hoping the plane on the runway would get out of the way and it was just a little too late?
How often does this happen?
It's not a common occurrence. From the fact that the plane sitting in position finally pulled off the runway, a few scenarios come to mind. It's possible that the departure fix for this plane shut down due to weather, so the tower couldn't issue a takeoff clearance. This seems unlikely as it would usually be known before issuing the clearance to taxi onto the runway. And you didn't mention weather in the area.
Another possibility is that this crew had just recently started the second engine and needed to wait for the minimum warmup time before advancing the throttles for takeoff. Again, this would be known before taxiing into position and the crew should notify the tower that they needed the time. I've been in this situation and had the tower clear me into position and told to advise when I'm ready to go. Anyway, this situation by itself doesn't seem likely at all since the airplane ended up exiting the runway.
So that leaves me with the scenario of something coming up that prevented the crew from departing. It could even be combined with the previous scenario, i.e. they were cleared into position and waiting for the final 15 seconds of engine warmup. Then, when they advanced the throttles, they got some erroneous indication which necessitated exiting the runway.
During the time while they got the indication and informed the tower, the controller had to decide what to do with the landing aircraft. Once the decision was made for the departing aircraft to exit the runway, the tower determined that he wouldn't actually clear the runway completely in time and so he had to send the landing aircraft around.
Aggravating for the landing aircraft, and it was probably the last leg of a four day trip for the crew, with minimum time to make their commuting flight home. At least, that's how it usually goes.
btw, it's also possible that the landing aircraft shares some blame. Back when I was flying sideways on the 727 (flight engineer), we were flying our last leg into CVG. It was the FOs leg and beautiful weather. Approach control called out the traffic we were following and we called it in sight. The controller then cleared us for the visual approach to the runway and we were told to maintain "visual separation." The FO, anxious to get on the ground and scurry off to his commute home, kept the speed up. I was watching over his shoulder, thinking he was pushing it too close (not too close from a safety standpoint, but so close that the preceding plane wouldn't have time to exit the runway for our landing).
Sure enough, by the time he dirtied up the plane and got on final approach speed, we were within two mile of the landing aircraft. And when that plane went by the first two turnoffs from the runway after landing, we were over the approach lights. Tower told us to go around, so it was over 10 minutes more before we got on the ground.
So, in your case, a contributing factor could be that the landing aircraft was pushing it.