Air France touch-and-go at SXM

Touch-and-go landing at SXM happened today, Friday Jan 20. Aborted landing. Caught on video by Maho beach cam.

Maho beach cam video is here.

Island cam is here.

flightradar24.com playback is here.

Not getting it .

That's what happened on Monday x 3 but at least then there was a storm to blame. Yesterday was pretty nice...strange

Video looks like the aircraft actually touched down and then aborted

boucharda--I could be wrong, but isn't that what a "touch and go" is?

Yeah, Carol. If the wheels don't touch it's called a "low pass." And typically both low-pass and touch-and-go are done for three reasons:
- Pilot in training, practicing approach and/or landing.
- When the PIC (pilot in command) misjudges the approach and is concerned that there isn't sufficient runway remaining to stop the aircraft before the end of the runway.
- PIC sees an obstruction on the runway, and decides to abort the landing.

For the AF flight, I think it's the second one. Actually, hope it's the second one!

Correct...my "Duh"

boucharda--ok

Looked like a go-around to me; a touch and go I understand to be planned, I doubt this was. When I have watched Air France land the wheels usually touch down bang on the target, i.e. pretty much lined up with the PAPI (red lights), the video of the first attempt shows the touch down point significantly past there, my guess is that's why they went around. Maybe the crew judged that another ton of Jet A burned in a go-around was better than hot brakes from landing long?
Thanks for posting anyway, always interesting to watch things at PJIA!
Dave.

I was standing on the stairs to board my Delta flight at the south end of the terminal, when Air France attempted the landing. I did not see the wheels touch the ground prior to the pilot applying power for the go around. Looking at Goole Earth, the black marks on the runway mostly end at gate 2. My WAG was he was a little long on the touch down and aborted.

Something we'll never know for sure what happened but at least it wasn't a news worthy issue.