Rejected Take Offs/Go arounds

[Jack B]

I spend about an hour or so spotting at the airport every sunday, and have done so for about 2 years. In that time, I have only seen 2 go arounds and never an RTO. I am aware this probably only makes me an amateur spotter.

Are either of these a regular occurance around Sydney?

[Hugh Jarse]

Jack, it's good that you've never seen a RTO. That means that aircraft are more reliable than ever and events leading to a RTO are rare.

I've been flying for over 25 years, and have only done a handful of real RTO's in my career.

They're not something to be taken lightly, particularly in the high speed regime.

[Blake Riley]

few years i have been spotting i have only ever seen one RTO at sydney airport would have been middle of last year a QF 747-300 on 16R powered up
and about 5-10seconds later it slowed right down and braked hard then it went back to the gate it was a fault with the engine 3 thrust,
guess i was just lucky to see it and for Go arounds its just being at the right place at the right time to see one i dont see many but i have seen quite alot in my time of spotting

[Steve C]

Funny story re RTO's

Some years back I was in a TAA (I said some years back) 727 waiting for take off on a wet and windy day, when I saw a QF 747 on takeoff roll. I quickly realised it was not going fast enough, sure enough it aborted.

As I was working for QF at the time, it was easy enough to find out what happened. One of the engines failed to reach take off power.

The funny side? The flight was a flight full of folks who had just completed a course on overcoming fear of flying!

Steve