Plane Makes Heartstopping Landing In 150 MPH Wind Gusts

Amazing new video today of a Lufthansa jet, flying from Munich to Hamburg with 137 passengers, veering back and forth in 150 mile per hour gusting winds. The plane came within "a split second of crashing" and after just touching down, a wing tip hit the runway and the plane bounced sideways on the runway. The now-hailed pilots shot back up, tried again and landed safely.

Watch:

A german plane had a near miss when it tried to land in gusting winds. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1438502008http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=1178199204

Comments

[JBS]

The pilot never should have attempted a landing in that level of cross-wind. You can see that from the amount of crab the pilot's having to hold to keep his heading. He's at almost 45 degrees to the direction of flight..
I don't find it praise-worthy that he somehow managed to escape killing himself and his passengers. He should never have put himself into that situation to begin with.

[Jeffomil]

NO PILOT would have ATTEMPTED this landing if he KNEW about 50-60 mph crosswinds! All you who blame this highly skilled/trained pilot: This was the TOWER'S fault!!

[MajorKong]

That's for the investigation to decide, but the blame will probably rest with the pilots. A KLM aircraft refused to take off from that runway in the same winds.

The winds were gusting to 55 knots, 60 degrees off the runway direction. That works out to about a 36-37 knot crosswind component. Right about at the limit for that aircraft. Technically legal but probably not the best choice.

They came back around and landed on the other runway, which was better aligned with the wind. I'm not sure why they didn't try that the first time around.

[JBS]

Nope. The tower can advise, but it's the pilot's decision.

The *PILOT* is responsible for the aircraft.

This pilot received a weather report on approach that plainly states winds of 35 knots with gusts to 55 knots with a wind direction of 290 deg. That gives a crosswind component on runway 23 (230 deg) of 30 knots or more.

The Airbus 320's maximum crosswind for landing is 33 knots, maximum gust is 38 knots. The pilot decided to attempt a landing in conditions that exceeded the capabilities of the aircraft.

I'm glad he managed to recover from the consequences of his own poor decision, but I don't find it commendable.

[gcallaghan]

Any repeats of this landing style and expect Lufthansa to add a colon cleansing surcharge to their fare

[ErnestineBass]

On the contrary, one would think that every colon aboard that flight was completely purged...

[bogtrotters]

Take away the wind, and that landing has Alabama Air National Guard written all over it.

[mawrm]

Now, now.... Alabama ANG has good pilots. Did you know the Army trains its helo pilots in Alabama?

mawrm - a proud pilot in Alabama!! ;-)

But back to the story - that's one hellacious crosswind to be crabbed like that on final approach. They were extremely lucky on that attempt because they had enough speed to initiate a go-around. Probably came back around with less flaps and/or a slightly slower approach speed on the second approach.

[bogtrotters]

No offense intended. I was thinking of a certain Texan who "served" with y'all during the Vietnam years.

[wadenelson1]

>Probably came back around with less flaps and/or a slightly slower approach speed on the second approach.

I thought you claimed in there somewhere to be a pilot.

[WilliamWallace]

God bless the amazing professionals who keep me safe every time I step onto an aircraft (the whole crew). I have the greatest respect for pilots. Brilliant job.

[wcfar]

Give that pilot a bonus! What a hell of a job of holding it together and getting the bird back up again!!

[Dorian]

I say "Why in the hell were they trying to land in that kind of wind in the first place???""" Who made that decision????

[sheaftosser]

Yeah, ANYBODY can tell in advance when a 100 MPH gust of wind is coming.

Give it a rest you fool. If they had any advance warning of this do you think they would have been anywhere near a runway?

People like you usually are the ones with tears streaming down their faces, sitting in a pool of their own urine after an incident like this, thinking about who they're going to sue first.

[Mattie]

I don't think 2nd guessing his decision is all that fair, I would just be thanking god he appeared to be a great pilot. CNN reported that there wasn't a sound on that plane after it landed.

[loki]

Thats gotta be 210% pucker factor in each and ever seat on board!!

I say, give that crew each a million dollar bonus for saving plane and passengers, and let him retire if he wants to. They've more than earned it.

[JBS]

Didn't actually save the plane though. That left wing is going to have to be replaced. Bent it when it hit the runway.

[wadenelson1]

Doubt it. You can bend the wings till they're well above 45 degrees before they'll break. I've seen footage of Boeing doing it on their jets. A little scrape is nothing. Nothing.

Some German magazine ALREADY reported the winglet was replaced and the plane back in service the next day. I rest my case.

[Virago55]

That's enough to make your ass pucker.

[fightorleave2]

I agree Meredith Viera (sp.?) is an idiot. Clearly, she is not a journalist. After all, the comments astutely noted (a) it could not have been 150 mph winds and (b) the pilot is not a hero but a jackass for risking the lives of the passengers and attempting the lander. But, that's what we get in America, people who don't know what they are talking about are given jobs that clearly they don't merit.

[Dorian]

Someone screwed up for that plane to be landing in those kind of conditions.

[EditMe]

Two questions come to mind when I see this video: Why are the pilots attempting to land in this kind of wind (which obviously is not 150 MPH)? Secondly, does the airport have a second runway where landing wouldn't hit the plane from the side?

[ylpatriot]

Exactly seems rather irresponsible to bring a plane for landing in such bad weather
!!!!!!! but then we all know $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ prevails not good judgement and safetey eh ?

[60thStreet]

riiight and you are all expert pilots and air traffic controllers and this is a specialized blog about flying tips. What a bunch of dumb fucks

[Mattie]

Maybe he should have run out of fuel instead waiting for a perfectly sunny day. Planes land in bad weather all the time don't they. I'm certainly no expert, so I'm not going to 2nd guess anyone who's a pilot. To me, a novice, he looks like he did a spectacular job of getting that plane under control. Maybe it was a wind shear, maybe it was a fluke, maybe he sucked as a pilot, I don't know, I'm just glad I wasn't on the plane, I would have had a heart attack!

[Palomares]

Definitely something amiss here. I am a pilot. No pilot in his right mind would attempt a landing in 150-mph winds, gusting or consistent. Unless the plane was out of fuel, which I doubt it was.

[wagadog]

I had a crosswind landing in Reno like that once, but they put it down first time through.

The wingtip on my size was actually skidding on the runway, sending sparks flying.

[shurshot]

Aluminum scraping on concrete or asphalt does NOT produce sparks. I wasn't there; but I AM an Aeronautical Engineer.

[turkeyneck]

but wagadog's plane was using flint winglets, y'know...

[KOisGod]

Misleading title to this article.

At 150 MPH gusts, the airport would look like a catagory 5 hurricane hit it. So, please check you aviation experts Huffpo, 150 is the approach speed for a passenger airliner. The gusts were from 35 to 50 mph, no doubt severe to land in, but not 150. A little sensationalist, don't you think?

[TekBoss]

Thank you. I was reading this saying "The people who publish this site are all idiots". And then I became worried about the readers. At least I now know a FEW aren't so damned gullible.

[KOisGod]

We had winds like that here with the storm of 1.4.08 in the SF bay area. From up out of the S-SW, wind speeds gusting to 60+, but the airports here have north - south oriented runways, and auxilary ones a differing angles in case of storms like the the one in January so a landing can for the most part , be into the wind and not 90 degrees to it.

Crabbing into a 50 knot wind trying to land is damn near suicidal. This pilot put his passengers and crew at risk. He's damn lucky he had the runway and flat terrain to pull this off.

[WilliePilgrim]

One has to wonder whether a plane flying by wire would have gotten itself into the same situation.

[MajorKong]

Most airliners can't autoland in winds that severe.

I don't know the limits for an A320, but I fly the A300 and it can only autoland in a 20 knot crosswind.

[A Meat Beetle]

Major:

I could never be a pilot. I don't have the nerve(s). I am in awe of those who do it. Whatever can be said of the pilot getting the plane into that situation in the first place, it seems to me that that was some pretty good flying to get that plane back in the air. Hell of a lot more than I could ever do.

[MajorKong]

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/showthread.php?t=23039&page=2

This is the weather report that the Lufthansa crew saw that day.

EDDH 011220Z 29028G48KT 9000 -SHRA FEW011 BKN014 07/05 Q0984 TEMPO 29035G55KT 4000 SHRA BKN008

It looks like gibberish, but you'll find the winds after the TEMPO (temporary condition) 290 degrees at 35 knots gusting to 55 knots. They landed on runway 23 (230 degrees on the compass). That puts the maximum wind 60 degrees off their nose at 35 to 55 knots. That would make the "crosswind component" 2/3 of 55 knots or roughly 36-37 knots.

That would put them right about at the demonstrated crosswind limit for that A320, which I'm told is 38 knots. Technically legal, but right at the limit and they would have had to execute a perfect approach, which they obviously didn't.

After the first attempt, they came around and landed on runway 33 (330 degrees) which was more in line with the winds.

[Dorian]

i.e. the pilots need a refresher course. They were lucky this time.

[mawrm]

Yeah, I was wondering about that as well - surely they could have found an airport nearby that gave them better alignment with the winds. But then I realized Germany perhaps isn't like US where we have 5000ft+ runways all over the place with various directions.
They were lucky indeed!!

[shurshot]

Thank you for a concise and knowledgeable analysis. Most of the posts are evidence of profound ignorance.

[HamletsMill]

Yes. Thank you, Major Kong. A person in the profession should always be the person to speak. And as someone posted, truly idiots seem to be running this site lately with that headline. I have never flown an aircraft but having flown in helicopters in the military I know no one would EVER fly an aircraft at ground level in a Level 4 Hurricane of 150 MPH! What utter morons are in the news business these days! people with no real life experience out of "journalism class" down at the Community College. DUH!

[Mattie]

Oh thank god someone as brilliant as you is here to read the concise and knowledgeable analysis. I'm suprised you're here, I thought airlines across the world would have read your brilliant posts, and would be recruiting you to prevent all future airline disasters, you being such a genius and all.

[Rendon76]

What if the wing or engine that looked like it was scraping on the ground had been mortally damaged? They would have been in big trouble had they gone back up like that I would think.

[shurshot]

What the hell is a "mortal wound" to a wing tip or engine cowling ?!?

[wadenelson1]

One that throws debris into the engine or results in damage to the control surfaces.