Go-Around: Why One of Aviation's Safest Decisions Is Still So Difficult

You're established on final.

The aircraft is slightly high. Maybe a little fast. ATC kept you tight on the approach, the wind isn't quite what you expected, and you've been working to get the aircraft back where you want it.

Nothing feels dramatically wrong.

And that's exactly where the problem can begin.

A go-around is one of the most normal manoeuvres in commercial aviation. We train for it, we brief it, and we have clearly defined criteria telling us when to execute one.

Yet when an approach starts drifting outside those criteria, there can be a powerful temptation to think:

I can fix this.

Sometimes the most professional decision a pilot can make isn't to rescue the approach.

It's to stop it.

What actually makes an approach stable?

The exact criteria vary between operators and aircraft types, so your company SOP always comes first.

But the basic philosophy is remarkably consistent. As the aircraft reaches the final stages of an approach, it should be in a position where very little needs to change.

The aircraft should generally be:

• on the correct flight path;

• at an appropriate speed;

• in the correct landing configuration;

• at a controlled rate of descent;

• aligned with the intended runway;

• operating within the limits defined by the operator; and

• requiring only normal corrections to maintain the approach.

Many operators use stabilisation gates around 1,000 feet in IMC and 500 feet in VMC, although individual SOPs may differ.

The important part isn't simply passing a gate. An approach that was stable at 1,000 feet can become unstable afterwards.

The question therefore continues all the way towards touchdown:

Is this still an approach we should be landing from?

The go-around paradox

Here's where aviation becomes interesting.

Pilots don't generally lack knowledge about go-arounds. We know the procedure. We practise them repeatedly in the simulator. We know the stabilised approach criteria. We know that going around is preferable to forcing an unsafe landing.

And yet industry research has historically found surprisingly low compliance with go-around policies after unstable approaches.

Why?

Because this isn't purely a technical problem. The go-around decision is a human factors problem long before it is a flying one.

“I can still make it work”

Pilots are trained to solve problems. That's normally a very good thing.

If something moves away from the desired state, we identify the deviation, correct it and monitor the result.

But during an approach, that same instinct can work against us.

You're slightly fast. Correct. Still high. Correct. The wind changes. Correct again. ATC asks you to keep the speed up, so now you're configuring later than planned.

None of these events individually seems serious enough to abandon the approach. But together they can gradually consume the margin you had available.

Instead of asking:

Is this approach still stable?

the mind can quietly switch to:

Can I still land this aircraft?

Those are not the same question.

Plan continuation bias

Human factors researchers use the term plan continuation bias to describe our tendency to continue with an existing plan even when changing conditions suggest that another course of action would be safer.

Aviation creates an almost perfect environment for it.

You've already descended. You've briefed the approach. The cabin is secure. The runway is ahead. ATC expects you to land. Passengers expect to arrive. The next sector may already be tight. Maybe there's weather behind you. Maybe you've flown this approach hundreds of times.

Every part of the situation seems to be pulling the aircraft towards one outcome: landing.

Changing that outcome requires a deliberate decision. And the closer you get to the runway, the stronger that psychological momentum can become.

A go-around isn't a failed approach

This is perhaps the most important cultural point.

A go-around can feel like something went wrong. But that's the wrong way to look at it.

Sometimes the weather changed. Sometimes traffic didn't work out. Sometimes the aircraft ahead didn't vacate. Sometimes ATC gave you a late clearance. Sometimes the wind shifted. And sometimes the approach simply didn't come together.

None of those things require a heroic recovery.

A go-around isn't an admission that the crew couldn't land the aircraft. It's the execution of the backup plan that was there from the beginning.

That's why it is briefed.

The trap of the empty runway

There's another psychological factor pilots rarely talk about.

When you can physically see a long, empty runway directly ahead of you, the brain receives a very powerful visual message: the destination is right there. The threshold may be seconds away.

That makes abandoning the approach feel counterintuitive.

But runway availability and approach stability are two completely different things. A runway being directly in front of the aircraft doesn't automatically make the aircraft ready to land on it.

Sometimes those final few hundred feet are precisely when discipline matters most.

The Pilot Monitoring matters more than ever

This is also where good CRM becomes critical.

When the Pilot Flying is busy correcting flight path, speed, configuration or energy, their attention naturally narrows. The Pilot Monitoring has a different perspective.

That second set of eyes isn't just there to read checklists and make radio calls. It's there to protect the bigger picture.

• Are we stable?

• Are we within SOP?

• Are corrections becoming excessive?

• Has the situation changed?

• Would continuing this approach still make sense if we weren't already this close to the runway?

A clear call from the PM can break the psychological momentum of continuing.

And when SOP calls for a go-around, there shouldn't be a debate at 400 feet.

Make the go-around decision before you need it

One useful mental technique is to make the go-around decision before you need it, not while you are trying to fly the aeroplane out of a deteriorating approach.

During the briefing, don't treat the go-around simply as a sequence of thrust, attitude, configuration and navigation actions. Brief the circumstances that would trigger it.

• If the wind exceeds the limit, go around.

• If we're not stable by the required gate, go around.

• If the runway isn't clear, go around.

• If either pilot becomes uncomfortable with the approach, go around.

Now the crew isn't inventing a decision while workload is high. The decision has already been made. The conditions simply activate it.

A second approach is usually very different

There's also something experienced pilots know well. The second approach often feels completely different.

The rush disappears. The aircraft is configured earlier. Everyone knows what caused the first approach to deteriorate. The crew has more time. The briefing becomes more focused.

And something that felt difficult five minutes earlier suddenly becomes routine.

That is the beauty of a go-around. It buys you something extremely valuable in aviation: time.

Time to reorganise. Time to communicate. Time to configure. Time to think. And most importantly, time to create another safe opportunity to land.

Good pilots don't need to save every approach

Flying professionally involves thousands of small judgments. Most of them will never appear in a logbook.

Nobody will congratulate you for abandoning an approach that probably would have resulted in a perfectly normal landing. The passengers may never even understand why you went around.

But aviation safety isn't built on proving what you could have gotten away with. It's built on preserving margins.

The next time an approach starts requiring just a little too much fixing, remember:

The runway isn't going anywhere. Take another lap. Set it up properly. And try again.

That's not failure. That's airmanship.

Safe flights.

Every approach you fly ends up as a line in your logbook, the ones that worked and the ones you took around again. Wader is an electronic logbook built for professional pilots, on iOS and on the web. Import your OFP to fill in the flight details, keep your record current, and have it ready the moment someone asks for it. Create a free account.

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Operational procedures, stabilised approach criteria and go-around requirements vary by aircraft, operator and regulatory authority. Pilots should always follow their approved company procedures and aircraft documentation.