NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
Flight crew reported they received a sink rate aural warning during final approach and performed a go around.
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
Unstable approach, we got high on final tried to come back to the right altitude, received an aural alert “Sink Rate”. Pilot Monitoring (PM) (Captain called go around). Suggestion: Do not be abrupt in the controls and changes of altitude, that is dangerous due to the proximity of the ground.
Reporter 2
The First Officer (FO) was flying a visual approach to Runway 36R into CLT with the ILS as a backup to the visual in gusty wind conditions. Below 1000 feet he started trending high. I announced it and he began correcting. After passing 500 feet, the aircraft began descending at an unacceptable rate and we received a “sink rate” warning. I instructed the FO to go around. The FO performed the go around and we were given a rectangular traffic pattern for the missed approach. We were then brought back around for another visual approach backed up with the ILS and landed without incident. Suggestion: Be more wary of the gusty winds and the effects on the aircraft’s rate of descent during approaches.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Human Factors · Weather
- Primary Problem
- Human Factors
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 ↗.