Night curfews are a strict business at airports across Europe. Fines can be levied against airlines and airports if aircraft arrive too early or too late without special permission. Just last month, a Condor flight was 30 seconds late, just 2,100 feet from touchdown when the clock struck 00:30.
This month, an ANA flight had the opposite problem, it arrived in Frankfurt seconds too early and was forced to go around for a second landing attempt. This latest incident was brought to our attention by Discover Airlines pilot Ori Gross’ LinkedIn post.
Luckily for ANA, the extra time before landing in Frankfurt was not nearly as long as Condor’s delay. NH203 touched down 15 minutes after beginning its go around at 05:15 local time.
The first arrivals
ANA’s flight 203 is routinely among the first arrivals at Frankfurt every morning, sometimes landing at precisely 05:00 as the night curfew expires. It’s not clear what made this particular flight arrive just ahead of schedule, but 1.89 kilometers and about 30 seconds made the difference between a smooth first arrival and a go around.
And the go around, with the aircraft at full thrust, was surely counterproductive to the goal of the night curfew: noise abatement.
30 Responses
Counterproductive as well to the reduction in senseless carbon emissions.
I’ve flown a few times on LX87 from Montreal to Zurich, and had the departure delayed for this reason. Find it amazing they can time it so accurately, but it’s bound to go wrong once in a while.
Agree with you that a full thust go around will wake up many more people than a soft landing.
Agree with you that a full thrust go around will wake up many more people than a soft landing.
This is what happens when people who enforce the rules don’t even have a clue about what the rules are intended for
I live in Frankfurt and have experience that loud noise often enough. In my opinion it would be more helpful if ATC could take action and ask the aircraft well ahead of approach to take a short diversion if too early or direct them to another airport if too late
What would happen if a plane did not have enough fuel do do a go around
Land!
In this case, the pilot will have declared a fuel emergency in advance, so the landing would likely be approved.
However, because running out of fuel is a serious incident that could potentially lead to a crash, it will be subject to investigation by an accident investigation committee in accordance with ICAO Annex 13.
Complete madness to send around – thought the same on the other flight that was late. Appreciate there are limits for a reason but a severe fine would be appropriate for the late arrival and honestly on early arrival by less than a minute seems crazy. Fine then in a similar way if this was every day or 15 mins early but not like this….
This has happened to me at Sydney Kingsford Smith, many years ago in a 747-200. Blasting over the centre of Sydney at GA thrust made as much sense then as it does now.
The Europeans, in particular the Germans, appear to be their own worst enemy when it comes to government mandates intended to solve one problem, which only creates new ones.
OK, it’s only typical German correctness. 4.49:50 ist Not 5.00
And the noise of the Airplane, forced to fly an extra Round over Frankfurt at this time, it doesn’t matter.
Surely, a financial penalty of, say €100 per available seat for flights landing in the 5 minutes prior to curfew end time but loss of a landing slot (for a complete scheduling season) for any flight landing before Curfew-5.
The missed approach is noisy and thus counterproductive with the associated extra fuel & CO2!
Since Air Traffic Control is guiding the aircraft in, they should have slowed the approach so the aircraft landed after cerfew. If the time difference did not allow the aircraft to slow sufficiently, ATC should have directed the aircraft into a holding pattern at an altitude unlikely to cause too much noise for the sleeping people of Frankfurt.
The option is let the aircraft land safely and 30 seconds early and the airport pays the fine!
Since Air Traffic Control is guiding the aircraft in, they should have slowed the approach so the aircraft landed after cerfew.
If the time difference did not allow the aircraft to slow sufficiently, ATC should have directed the aircraft into a holding pattern at an altitude unlikely to cause too much noise for the sleeping people of Frankfurt.
The option is to let the aircraft land safely and 30 seconds early, then the airport pays the fine!
Does anyone think about the safety of the passengers?
Seconds is ridiculous, and like you mentioned, a lot more noise with a go-around.
Typical beaurocratic rules, zero common sense. Going around would make more noise than landing would.
This is the Crazy world we now live in , all that extra fuel burnt , the sound as it puts on the power to climb away, yep we have come a long way , all for 30 seconds .
Somehow this is nuts, always they say/scream about pollution and environment and then this! Ok rules are rules but common sense has to be also considered here.
ATC would surely have been on duty at that time, so perhaps they should have diverted the flight into a short holding pattern way before it approached the airport in order for it to use up a bit of time.
So the folks under the approach path got the expected noise twice and the ones below the climb-out path had never been woken up so early. Clever ATC!
big huggs to Ori Gross !!
Quincy
Night curfews are usually about noise abatement procedures, surely the go around would cause more noise than the landing? The pilot could have been asked to use minimal reverse thrust and probably the local residents would have been none the wiser of the early landing.
Night Curfews at many European Airports are necessary because the areas around the airports are now, due to lack of long-term planning, densely populated and exposed to noise.
However, one would expect some common-sense application of these restrictions.
How stupid and inane of the airport not to allow the landing – it just goes to show that if you allow Politicians and Political Patties to make rules and push their agendas, what ineptitude ensues!
How much air pollution was there for an extra circuit by the aircraft? What about full throttle on those RR TRENT 1000s on being told they couldn’t land at that precise moment?
I really do hope the aircrew throttled up those RR TRENTs, and really rattled the windows waking EVERYBODY up around the place!
As usual a complete lack of leadership. management and brains/intelligence at the airport!
Ridiculous!! That would be putting people’s lives in danger. If there are no issues they should be allowed to land on first attempt.
As we know the Kerosin has a negative impact on CO2 emission. Because of this it makes sense to fly some more rounds before landing…In addition then the consumption is higher which can lead to higher prices for a ticket…Is it a win win situation? Some will always be the winner. The question is: Who will be the winner?
Who makes the decision? ANA or the associated ATC? What a critical adjustment to make after a long trip! Pilots decision! Is it the company or ATC! There are… and always be gray areas and fudge factors! Curious to know more about this problem?
Flight Management Computers calculate the precise time expected over a waypoint, etc., and everybody uses GPS time which is ridiculously accurate. So why was an approach begun when the projected landing time was too early? Pilots may request a 360 or S-turns for stabilizing an approach, altitude or speed reduction, wake separation, delay for runway occupation, etc. This was simply poor flight planning and management by the crew.