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2 Answers

Going missed at destination airport on IFR lost comm

Asked by: 3548 views FAA Regulations, General Aviation, Instrument Rating

When you go around on lost comm at your destination airport and as you make your way to the alternate airport, would you execute the published missed approach procedure and then hold at a fix or proceed to alternate airport by direct means of navigation?

Also, is it possible to execute another approach at destination airport after going missed ?

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2 Answers



  1. John D Collins on Oct 01, 2016

    Why would you go to your alternate? Why would you retry an approach or a different one at your destination? Why would you hold at a missed approach hold?

    All these are rhetorical questions. You are pilot in command, do what is best and safest. If going to your filed alternate is the safest course of action, you should have sufficient fuel to get there, assuming nothing has changed since you planned the flight. If there is a VFR airport you overflew a half hour ago, going there might be your best bet.

    There is no requirement to go to your alternate and in fact ATC doesn’t have a clue as to what you filed. Let them worry about other traffic around you. After having followed the lost Comm requirements of 91.185 to your destination, you are on your own after that as to where you go to. Altitudes would still follow 91.185 guidance, but routes and destinations are simply not covered. Do whatever you have to do to end the flight safely and as soon as feasible.

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  2. Mark Kolber on Oct 03, 2016

    Tagging on to John’s excellent comment, a bit of self-talk on those rhetorical questions.

    After a missed due to low weather, I am going where I have a good chance of getting in. Period. It might be the same airport. It might be the alternate that seemed a good idea when I planned the flight 4 hours earlier. It might be a different nearby airport with better conditions. It might be the VFR airport I passed 30 minutes earlier.

    In flight, I keep track of weather while en route and if my destination is near minimums, use that information to make at least a tentative decision where to go in case of a missed.

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