Although the FAA’s recent Safety Alert for Operators (Safo) 15004 was created to encourage airlines to incorporate scenario-based go-around training into their pilot-training curricula, the concept is just as important for business aviation flight departments. The commercial aviation safety team (CAST) studied numerous loss-of-control accidents and incidents for this Safo and discovered that four occurred during the go-around phase of flight, with some caused by a speed decay leading to a stall. Others included a significant nose-down input, likely a reaction to a somatogravic illusion, a vestibular anomaly experienced by pilots during periods of high acceleration/deceleration when no visual reference is available. Without a solid visual to resolve the ambiguity, the brain can interpret the situation as a tilt back (pitching up) sensation under acceleration and a tilting forward (pitching down) sensation under deceleration.

Potential training scenarios include go-arounds initiated from various stages of the approach or from visual approaches immediately followed by a loss of all outside visual references. Others involve go-arounds following an extreme pitch-trim configuration, such as nose-up trim resulting from flight at speeds slower than approach with the autopilot engaged. Another might occur in a low-weight configuration with all engines brought to go-around thrust or with ATC changing a clearance just after a go-around is initiated.