Unusual Operations

From time to time you may notice an unusual aircraft operation at or around the airport. Below are a number of examples of unusual operations that you may see at London Stansted Airport.

Go-arounds or missed approaches

A go-around, or missed approach, can occur for many reasons such as, an obstruction on the runway preventing the aircraft from landing safely, a change in the wind conditions or that the aircraft cabin is not secure for landing. When coming into land, if a go-around is initiated, the pilot will apply thrust to climb straight ahead and then either turn left or right. Because a go-around can occur at any stage of the approach, the climb and turn could occur before or after reaching the runway. The exact path taken by an aircraft going around will be dependent on surrounding air traffic, the weather, the direction of operation and the point at which it is initiated. However, standard missed approaches, where possible, follow the Buzad Noise Preferential Route.

The aircraft will then be directed by Air Traffic Control who will then position the aircraft to make a second approach to the runway to land. This may mean that aircraft performing a go-around could overfly areas they do not normally at potentially lower than expected altitudes. On occasion, it is not possible to follow a standard missed approach and on these rare occasions, aircraft will be directed by Air Traffic Control to maintain a safe separation from all other air traffic and may overfly areas not usually overflown.

You can find out more by watching this video:

An example of a go-around on Runway 22 (Westerly Operations) can be seen below. As you can see the aircraft took a right turn and orbit around to re-establish for a second, successful, approach on to Runway 22:

Military Flights

On occasions, military aircraft operate at London Stansted Airport. We are limited in our ability to mitigate against the noise impacts of these types of aircraft, however, they are still required to operate within the existing regulations that apply to our regular commercial traffic. Depending on the type of aircraft, noise suppression can be limited.