B737NG flight crew reported executing a go-around from a low altitude after spacing issues became apparent. Earlier in the flight they encountered wake turbulence that resulted in airspeed loss of 10-15 knots.

ACN 2065393 2023-12 B737 Next Generation Undifferentiated Wake Turbulence Encounters

Initial ApproachPart 121

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 narratives

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.

Reporter 1

SFO was down to single runway for arrivals today. They were essentially vectoring holding and then putting aircraft in line for approach. Our initial vectors to final were close enough to the aircraft in front of us that we inadvertently flew through wake turbulence, increasing our pitch and dropping our airspeed by 10-15 knots rapidly. Airspeed loss was not outside range of current configuration, but slower than ATC directed. This occurred at 8 mile final. I disengaged autopilot and hand flew approach from approximately 3000 AGL. Soon after, Tower directed us to slow to slowest practical and maintain. We slowed from originally directed 180 to 154. At 5 mile final we were cleared to land. At approximately 3.5 mile final for 28R SFO, Tower cleared an aircraft for takeoff on 1R. We were in VMC conditions so we continued the approach looking for line of sight and impending rotation of departing aircraft. At approximately 400 ft AGL my First Officer saw beginning of crossing runway takeoff aircraft rotation. Just before the PM approaching minimums call, we heard our call sign go-around from Tower. We executed go-around per FM and were given subsequent radar vectors for same runway, landing uneventfully.

Reporter 2

ATC directed go around at 500 AGL on visual approach to Runway 36R. We were vectored back for another visual approach on Runway 36R. We landed the flight safely without further incident.

NASA classification — Anomalies

ATC Issue
Conflict
Deviation - Speed
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 ↗.