A week ago I was flying into Heathrow on British Airways and we were virtually on the ground. We were parallel with the roofs of the terminals when suddenly the pilot hit the accelerator and took the plane up vertically on its nose. Engines screeched, pressure increased, wheels went up and so did we. We screamed into the clouds and there was a fair bit of activity and noise in the cabin around me. The captain then came over the intercom and said we have been pretty close to an A380 and the wind following it had shaken us around. Being off balance the captain felt it was safer to hit wheels up and go around again. We landed safely.
And just last week I was on a Singapore Airlines A380 on a 12-1/2 hour flight from London to Singapore. As we came into land at Changi once again wheels went up and we headed for the open skies rather than the safety of land. A freak thunderstorm hit the airport, took visibility down to zero just as we were attempting to land, and the captain decided it was safer to take us up again. Having explained this to us we entered a holding pattern and then came in again (I guess we didn’t have that much fuel left) only for another storm to hit us unexpectedly on approach causing us to lift up once again. Third time lucky we finally made it onto the ground.
There’s gotta be easier ways to make a living!
