Abort on approach just now - what happened?

[interstellar]

Just landed at Paris CDG ON BA308.

We were on approach but still above cloud cover, pilot suddenly pulled up hard and went around.

What happened? Something was said about the plane in front slowed down too quick.

Was it a near miss?

[Claret m]

No it was not a near miss. You went around from just below 4000 feet, the aircraft ahead was an Air France Airbus 350.
The A350 is a heavy aircraft and the Airbus you were on a medium, that requires a slightly greater distance between to avoid wake turbulence. I suspect the spacing by ATC just didn’t work out as planned.
As a matter of interest, a passenger would be unlikely to know if you had a near miss or airprox as it is known, the TCAS manoeuvre to avoid another aircraft is very gentle.
Hope that is of interest.
All the best

[interstellar]

Thank you. I knew someone on here would know.

Never had it before and it was sudden so interested to know. Thanks.

[Dbag101]

I don’t wish to derail here, but that is an interesting thing. I believe that the official Airbus MO / procedure, if hitting wake turbulence, was originally to counter the uncommanded roll, with a dose of boot. However, after the American Airlines flight 587 accident, it was discovered by the investigation, that this actually led to the vertical stab being sheared off completely, so airbus changed the procedure / MO, to aileron inputs instead. I wonder if your pilot flying didn’t fancy his chances, so went for a go around.

[48k]

Dbag101 said:

I don’t wish to derail here, but that is an interesting thing. I believe that the official Airbus MO / procedure, if hitting wake turbulence, was originally to counter the uncommanded roll, with a dose of boot. However, after the American Airlines flight 587 accident, it was discovered by the investigation, that this actually led to the vertical stab being sheared off completely, so airbus changed the procedure / MO, to aileron inputs instead. I wonder if your pilot flying didn’t fancy his chances, so went for a go around.

The playback doesn't look too dramatic TBH.

[Ian Lancs]

Dbag101 said:

I don’t wish to derail here, but that is an interesting thing. I believe that the official Airbus MO / procedure, if hitting wake turbulence, was originally to counter the uncommanded roll, with a dose of boot. However, after the American Airlines flight 587 accident, it was discovered by the investigation, that this actually led to the vertical stab being sheared off completely, so airbus changed the procedure / MO, to aileron inputs instead. I wonder if your pilot flying didn’t fancy his chances, so went for a go around.

AA587 was more than "a dose of boot" - the first officer applied a lot of full left to full right rudder actions - not something Airbus ever intended a line pilot to do.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Fl...

[Dbag101]

Ian Lancs said:

AA587 was more than "a dose of boot" - the first officer applied a lot of full left to full right rudder actions - not something Airbus ever intended a line pilot to do.

To be fair, the PF seemingly didnt realise that the system servo for the surfaces had 2 settings. In ‘ground / taxi’ mode, the servo was not as aggressive as it was in ‘flight mode’ and I believe the system switched automatically, dependent on the settings of various controls. I have a feeling that it wasn’t the first time an accident was attributed to an aircraft having different responses to control inputs, when in ground mode, and flight mode either.