United 840 Wednesday

[Rob M]

I was at the beach today and United 840 turned left for 34L very late, they seemed to cross the approach for 34R whilst turning approx 180 degrees to get back on the approach for the main runway. I have never seen an aircraft
miss by so much.

[Phil M]

They may have been taken through final to put more space between them and the aircraft in front. This is obviously only done when taking into account traffic on final for 34R.

May not have been, but sometimes they are.

[Jason H]

Just saw it on webtrak at around 12.30pm and there were no aircraft in front of the United landing, taking off, or anywhere near United for that matter, so i have no idea why it would do that. Strange.....

[Lee M]

They could have been too fast or too high to make their approach. Overshooting the turn like that allows you to lose a little extra speed and altitude.

[Mick B]

Relatively strong westerly winds today wouldn't have helped things. The wind would have been pushing the aircraft off the centreline during the turn onto final approach. A 180 degree turn is pretty severe though.

[Grant Smith]

Just saw it on webtrak at around 12.30pm and there were no aircraft in front of the United landing, taking off, or anywhere near United for that matter, so i have no idea why it would do that. Strange.....

Hmmm... The only thing I find strange about this is that you seem to be accepting the "words" of an electronic tracking program as opposed to someone with the operational knowledge.

[Jason H]

Grant,
I'm just saying what I saw on the webtrak. There may have been aircraft there but webtrak didn't pick it up. And who says webtrak isn't accurate?

[Grant Smith]

They may have been taken through final to put more space between them and the aircraft in front. This is obviously only done when taking into account traffic on final for 34R.

Jason,

As per the above quote from Phil M,your question was more or less answered some 4hrs and 5mins before you posted..

[Jason H]

I don't understand how the question was answered. I mentioned how there seemed to be no aircraft in the area, hence, the looped approach being strange.

Anyway, it really doesn't matter

[Gareth Forwood]

I think Phil's post was more suggesting a possible explanation to the behaviour of the aircraft, rather than laying out the facts of the day (note the language used - "may have been"). I don't know why any criticism of the follow-up question was necessary.