On March 30, 2010, the Washington Post newspaper featured a story about aborted landings at National Airport just outside Washington, DC. The story discussed how compared to the two other local airports, Dulles in Virginia and BWI Marshall near Baltimore, National had many more aborted landings. This is a procedure where the flight crew is directed by air traffic controllers to not land, or where the crew elects not to land because of weather, runway obstructions, or other reasons.Typically, the aircraft is not in any imminent danger, and the usual result is either a delayed landing at the destination airport, or a diversion to a nearby airport. Although rejected landings are routine procedures that are designed to help aircraft avoid a hazardous situation, the experience can be unsettling for some passengers. According to research by the Washington Post, aborted landings happen about 10 to 20 times per month at the airport, compared to an average of about 10,600 scheduled landings per month (source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics). This means that at National, there is about one rejected landing for each 500 to 1,000 landing attempts.
On the day the Post article was published, Dr. Curtis of AirSafe.com discussed a number of potential safety issues associated with rejected landings at National Airport on WTOP radio in Washington, DC.
Listen to the interview (4:58)
This is a procedure where the flight crew is directed by air traffic controllers to not land, or where the crew elects not to land because of weather, runway obstructions, or other reasons. charter flights
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