2025-10 · NASA ASRS report 2298672
B737 flight crew reported flap control failure during approach and go around. Crew returned for uneventful landing.
After going miss in ZZZ due to gusty winds the flaps failed to retract and we oversped the flaps. On the approach into ZZZ XXR we encounter gusty conditions but the winds were nearly straight down the runway. I was the pilot flying. I do not remember the altitude we were at but the ILS failed. (Airplanes behind us also reported the ILS failing so it must of been an airport issue). Tower asked us if we wanted to continue visually. I elected to go around since i felt already very saturated from trying to keep the plane on speed and felt trying a second approach would be better than trying to continue current one. As we were preforming the go around we encounter more gust winds and speed control was very difficult. as we were selecting the flaps up on schedule I failed to notice we still had a high speed barber pole. The FO noticed after glancing at the flap indicator that even though the flaps were selected to either 1 or up the flaps indicated roughly 25-26 degrees. I quickly slowed the airplane back to with in limits for flaps setting and had the FO preform the appropriate checklist. We informed approach of the issue and requested priority handling for our next approach. We elected to change runways to XXL due to it being the longest runway. I briefed the company; flight attendants and ATC. I tried to brief the paxs but the Purser was on the PA making a PA so i abandoned that to focus on the approach. We asked for Crash Fire Response (CFR) to be standing by as a precaution. the second approach and landing into ZZZ was uneventful.
On the ILS XXR into ZZZ; strong gusting surface winds were reported. Turbulence had been light; and was increasing to moderate. Tower reported that the 2 aircraft ahead of us on the approach had both gone around due to windshear. Just as we began to discuss whether we were going to continue or abandon the approach; we lost the ILS; and the autopilot dropped into CWS for both pitch and roll. I reported the loss of ILS to the tower; and they queried whether we wanted to continue visually. We did have the field in sight at that point; but we quickly mutually decided that since we had already been considering breaking off the approach due to winds/turbulence; and now we had this on top of it; we would go around. I informed the tower of our decision to go around; and we began the go-around procedure. During the go-around; we continued to experience moderate turbulence. Additional distractions were added by ATC assigned altitudes/headings/frequency changes. During the flap retraction sequence; I was trying to figure out why the barber pole on the airspeed tape was not rising; since we were at an airspeed that should have been within limits for the selected flap settings. It was when we got to either flaps 1 or up that I looked at the flap position indicator and realized the flaps had failed at approximately 25; and pointed this out to the captain. He immediately slowed the aircraft back down below the barber pole; to 185 knots. The highest speed I saw during the overspeed event was 210 knots.The captain had the controls and took the radios; and began communicating to ATC our request for delay vectors; reporting the flap failure; and requesting priority handling. I ran the Trailing Edge Flap Disagree QRH. I then took the controls so the captain could communicate with the flight attendants and company. When that was complete; we discussed our options; returning to ZZZ vs trying to get to either our filed alternate ZZZ1 or any other alternate; given the fuel burn that would be incurred with flaps stuck at 25. Combined with reports received from ATC that all the aircraft on approach were now landing; and no longer going around; we elected to return to ZZZ; and would now use XXL for landing. While being vectored back toward the ILS for XXL; the captain attempted to make a PA to the pax; but the F/A was on the PA at the time; and we were busy after that; so unfortunately; the pax did not get a PA from the cockpit until we were parked at the gate. The remainder of the approach and landing were uneventful; and we taxied to the gate.
More incidents for this aircraft family
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.