Conversations in Dispatch Can Get Tricky

That voice-of-God vibe air traffic controllers have makes a pilot forget they’re allowed to push back.

Friday, March 01, 2024 at 12:55 PM ET

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FLYING contributor Ben Younger says ATC has asked him to do things on short final before, and it’s normally a nonevent. [Courtesy: Ben Younger]

Key Takeaways:

A pilot on final approach at Newark was suddenly instructed to go around, mere feet from landing, due to ATC spacing issues with a trailing jet.
During the hurried go-around, the pilot forgot to reset the aircraft's trim after adding full power and retracting flaps/gear, causing a dangerous, abrupt pitch-up and near-stall before recovery.
The incident highlighted the pilot's regret for not asserting "unable" given his commitment, and emphasized the critical importance of meticulous procedure execution, especially trim management, in high-workload situations.

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Newark Tower came on the radio, and the voice sounded urgent: “Bonanza Five Zero Whiskey, go around. Go around.”

It’s not like I’ve never heard those words before. Things happen at busy airports, and the tower will sometimes throw something at you at the last second. But this was unusual in that I was on short final. No, short final is actually a misnomer in this case. I was over the numbers. Flaps down, gear down, throttle back to 15 inches, trim plus-9 and increasing. I was, quite literally, about to land. Things went a little sideways from there, but let’s back up a minute first.