NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
A321 Captain reported executing a go-around after encountering wake turbulence on short final at CLT.
What is ASRS?
The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.
Pilot narrative
Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the
reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time);
anonymization placeholders are ZZZ,
X, Y.
On short approach to Runway 18R, I was the Pilot Flying. I’m unsure of the exact altitude and parameters of the event due to most of my attention outside, but sometime below 100 ft. AGL we encountered wake turbulence from the previous arrival aircraft. The wake was strong enough to cause a left rolling motion that was not effectively countered by near full right side stick input. At this moment, I did not feel like I had adequate roll control to continue the approach and was slightly out of a normal position to land so we immediately executed a go-around. The go-around was normal. The subsequent approach we also encountered some wake turbulence, but much less intense and a normal landing was made. I believe in both approaches we followed another A321 at around 3 to 3.5 miles. The weather conditions at the time seemed perfect for a wake encounter. A very light quartering tailwind was indicated on our ND around 300 ft. AGL. Optimal conditions for a wake turbulence encounter existed at the time. Very light or calm winds near the surface and just above the surface a light tailwind. I believe our response to the wake encounter was correct and well managed. Preventing the encounter all together would be ideal. I know many smart minds have studied wake and recommended spacing requirements from that data. Possibly some consideration to current weather conditions could make wake separation standards more dynamic.
Analyst callback
ASRS analysts occasionally follow up with reporters by phone. These are the paraphrased additional notes from those conversations.
Reporter stated he believes it should be possible to improve the procedure for anticipating wake encounters to help prevent similar incidents.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Environment - Non Weather Related · Procedure
- Primary Problem
- Procedure
ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.