[Extreme Photography] Life and Death Rebirth

Author: Jeffi Chao Hui Wu

(Jetstar JQ040 Extreme Go-Around Full Process Record)

On August 2, 2025, my wife and I took the Jetstar Airways flight JQ040, originally scheduled to depart at 11:55, but delayed to 12:40. We were flying from Bali, Indonesia to Sydney, Australia. This was supposed to be a calm journey, but a sudden incident occurred just before landing, resulting in a full flight turnaround, making it the most shocking experience in my decades of flying.

Our original seats were 30E for me and 30F for my wife. After boarding, we exchanged seats, so my actual window seat became 30F, making me the first eyewitness and complete recorder of the entire flight process. My recording device was a mobile phone, and I filmed the entire process handheld while simultaneously activating the flight annotation system within the camera app to record the corresponding altitude, flight speed, directional coordinates, and time data for each frame. Many people may not understand how to achieve professional-level aerial recording with just a mobile phone, but my years of persistence in using the most basic tools to complete the most extreme records have been integral to my photography and system design philosophy.

As the plane approached Sydney around 20:30, the captain informed that the ground wind speed was 60 kilometers per hour. The plane began to descend slowly, with video footage clearly recording the altitude dropping from 653 meters to a minimum of 293 meters. The city lights in the night gradually came closer, and the entire aircraft visually completed its landing preparation posture. However, just at the last moment before reaching the runway, the plane suddenly accelerated and pulled up. The body of the aircraft quickly tilted upwards, the engines roared, and the strong sensation of being pushed back caused panic among the passengers. I am very sensitive to the horizon and instinctively realized, "We're going around!" I immediately steadied my phone to continue filming, and throughout the rapid ascent back above one thousand meters, all data was continuously recorded without interruption.

Just a few seconds after the plane took off, the video clearly captured a child nervously asking, “Mummy, why fly again?” Following that, many passengers gasped, some inhaled sharply, others whispered in amazement, and some quickly looked up and glanced around—this moment of intertwined emotions became a profoundly human moment in the footage of the flight's resumption.

Until the safe altitude was restored, the captain informed the passengers via announcement that a go-around procedure was necessary due to changes in wind speed. The entire process took less than three minutes from descent to pull-up, but in the minds of the passengers, it seemed to stretch into an extreme test.

According to the information from the footage, on August 2, 2025, at 20:30:14, the Jetstar flight I was on, flying from Bali to Sydney, suddenly pulled up and went around before landing in Sydney. The footage was taken from seat 30E by the window, with the camera pointing to the right front, specifically towards the southwest direction of the aircraft (220°), but this does not equate to the aircraft's heading. According to the automatically overlaid data from the photo, the aircraft's coordinates at that time were 33.8879° S latitude and 151.1607° E longitude, with an altitude of only 293.7 meters and a speed of 207.8 kilometers per hour, while the view below was the night scene near Hay Street in the Leichhardt area of New South Wales, Australia. This moment was precisely the point where the aircraft attempted to land but failed, being closest to the ground during the pull-up.

Image text information at the minimum altitude for recovery flight (extracted in order):

Time: August 2, 2025 20:30:14

Photography credit: Wu Zhaohui Photography By JEFFI WU

Latitude and Longitude Coordinates: 33.8879°S, 151.1607°E

Shooting direction: 220° Southwest

Altitude: 293.7 meters

Flight speed: 207.8 kilometers/hour

Geolocation: Hay St, Leichhardt NSW 2040, Australia

On the day of the flight, Sydney experienced extreme weather conditions with continuous heavy rain. Because of this, the sudden resumption of the flight made passengers even more anxious. From the perspective of aviation operational standards, the resumption of flights in civil aviation is indeed a safety measure that follows procedures, with common triggering conditions including crosswinds exceeding limits, wind shear alerts, unstable headings, and runway occupancy. "Extreme weather" is just one of many factors that can lead to a flight resumption. This also explains why many people mistakenly believe that good weather means a flight cannot be resumed. In fact, from a statistical standpoint, the resumption rate of flights globally is about 0.2% to 0.4%, and there are almost no cases that can be fully documented by ordinary passengers with high-resolution data.

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The aircraft suddenly pulled up and resumed flight at an altitude of 293.7 meters.

What’s more special is that my shooting direction was not straight ahead, but at a 30F angle by the window, shooting diagonally down towards the southwest. This position perfectly avoided the obstruction of the wing, clearly presenting the true relationship between the city lights, runway light strips, cloud changes, and the movements of the aircraft. Many passengers may have captured similar scenes, but I am very likely the only one who has left behind high-definition continuous footage, complete with full coordinates and speed annotations. This further confirms that my years of insisting on adding time, direction, speed, and shooting location information to each photo and video far exceed the single-image value of ordinary photography, becoming a verifiable data chain for aviation events and even news materials.

After the plane resumed flying, the entire aircraft fell into silence. Passengers did not talk, and no one made a sound in the cabin, as if everyone was silently waiting for the next step of fate. Apart from a young child softly crying and another child nervously letting out a few innocent laughs, the remaining hundreds of passengers seemed frozen. I could even hear my own heartbeat and breathing in my ears. As the plane turned around and prepared for a second landing, the lights dimmed slightly, and everyone had stopped checking their phones or communicating, simply gripping the armrests tightly and silently gazing at the lights and the night outside.

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Altitude after the aircraft's ascent

During the last few hundred meters of descent, the wings of the aircraft swayed noticeably, shaking left and right with increasing intensity, visible to the passengers. At the moment of landing, it truly touched the critical line between "life and death." The plane descended through the clouds in extremely unstable air currents, pulling up and going around again, the entire cabin fell into a deathly silence. Twenty minutes after the go-around, most passengers remained silent, until the second landing attempt when nearly everyone gripped their armrests tightly. At that moment, the left tire clearly touched down first, accompanied by several violent shakes, the left wing oscillating up and down, and the entire aircraft shook violently—like the final blow after a struggle in the air, pressing down onto the earth. The instant of touchdown, a tremendous jolt transmitted through the fuselage to the seats, with a clear impact sound as the tires made contact with the runway. Yet even after touching down, no one in the cabin spoke; for a few seconds, it felt as if all passengers were holding their breath. It wasn't until the plane glided steadily and the fuselage completely stopped shaking for several seconds that the entire cabin erupted in enthusiastic applause and cheers, as if the silence had been lifted. That moment was not just applause for the captain's professional skills, but a collective emotional resonance released by everyone who had just experienced an "extreme flight."

Finally, around 20:51, after the plane landed safely, the crew announced that passengers were allowed to briefly stay for photos. I expressed my heartfelt thanks to the captain and the crew as I left. The captain specially invited me into the cockpit to sit in the captain's seat for a photo, and later we took a group photo with all the crew members. I specifically requested the captain to let me know his name; understanding the safety considerations, he deliberately covered the sensitive information on his name tag, revealing only "TROY," and allowed me to take a photo as a keepsake. His calm command and friendly interaction were admirable, and they provided a warm conclusion to my "frightening flight experience."

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The plane safely landed at Sydney Airport.

Looking back on this journey, I clearly feel that a truly "unrepeatable" record has been completed. Even if more people in the future shoot the Grand Canyon, capture the city skyline, or document the landing process, no one can replicate the complete height ascent process of those brief three minutes during this flight. Moreover, it is impossible to make up for the precise flight data and photographic angles recorded down to the second. Even if someone has filmed similar events, the differences in whether it was preserved, published, or systematically labeled are significant. I never intentionally pursued an exclusive record, but this time I know that I used my phone to achieve "extreme photography" that exceeds the expectations of most people.

This is an extreme flight, an extreme record, and a real-world verification of an extreme system through extreme photography. Even if you search through global flight data in National Geographic, aviation documentaries, or news footage today, it is nearly impossible to find complete personal footage like this one, documenting the entire process from descent, go-around to re-climb, along with detailed data and positional information. Therefore, I have named this "Go-Around Shock."

I have the complete video of this flight resumption, including date and time, videographer, GPS coordinates, altitude, airspeed, and dynamic detailed information about the cabin conditions before and after landing. The entire process was filmed by myself, with visuals and data recorded in sync, ensuring completeness and rarity, available for verification and archiving.

For further information about this event or to view the complete visual materials, you can refer to the historical records in my column series published on the Australian Changfeng Forum. All of my works are marked with signatures, dates, coordinates, and information fields. Researchers, editors, and enthusiasts are welcome to contact me for inquiries.