Expert: Colin Woehrle - 5/19/2009

Question
i was cleared for the ils handed off to the tower i contacted tower and tower sent me back to approach and approach instructed me to go miss because of a jet ready for take off so i was sent to a holding pattern i thought landing aircraft had the right of way thanks

Answer
Approach and tower control coordinate the arrivals and departures of aircraft for efficiency. Sometimes (rarely) there is a distance conflict between an aircraft on approach and an aircraft in position for takeoff on the runway - regulations require the controller to direct a landing aircraft to execute a missed approach in this case because they cannot have an aircraft land when one is still on the runway waiting to depart. It's a controller mistake, not yours, and it happens more often when ATC training is being conducted. Hope this clears things up. Thanks for the question!


Colin