On Saturday, October 10, 2026, Lufthansa flight LH456 from Frankfurt am Main aborted its landing during late final approach at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The Boeing 747-8, registered D-ABYK, briefly touched down with its main landing gear on runway 24R before the flight crew initiated a go-around and pitched up into a climb.
Video footage broadcast via live streams and social media documented a high pitch attitude as the widebody aircraft transitioned into the missed approach procedure. While the rapid rotation momentarily brought the empennage close to the paved runway surface, a subsequent inspection confirmed that no tailstrike occurred and required safety margins were preserved.
The widebody conducted a visual circuit over the Pacific Ocean before landing safely at LAX roughly 15 minutes later without further incident. A comparable missed approach had previously occurred on this identical Lufthansa route in April 2024 following an unstable approach profile.
Discontinued landings represent standard operating procedures within civil aviation, triggered whenever stabilized approach criteria are compromised on final segment or in the presence of abrupt wind shear.
Why it matters for your training
Managing a rejected landing after momentary wheel contact requires strict pitch attitude monitoring on long-fuselage types to prevent a tailstrike. This event highlights the application of standard missed approach decision-making when an approach destabilizes in the touchdown zone.
