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

[MajorKong]

Here's what the folks at airlinepilotcentral are saying about this:

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

[MagisterLudi]

Here's a more complete version of that clip:

http://tapman.net/archives/45

P.S. This is not my site, just a Google search.

[Chumleysmom]

Watch this vid with the sound OFF!!

[Beachrunner]

"Flight attendent! Clean-up in all aisles!"

[MagisterLudi]

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[saxmaniac]

Zander, couldn't agree more, especially after wingtip touched. Truly outstanding airmanship. And was the wind speed 150 mph or the AIRSPEED 150 mph, which is normal touchdown speed for an Airbus or 737? Headline writers ought to find out and report accurately, because 150 mph winds in Europe would have shut down the entire continent!

[MajorKong]

An A320 like that probably comes down final at around 130 knots, depending on how heavy it is.

Someone on Airlinepilotcentral looked up the METAR from that day:

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

They landed on runway 23, with winds at 290 degrees at 35 knots gusting to 55. That works out to a 36 knot crosswind component. That would definitely be out of limits for an Airbus 300 or 310, I'm not sure what an A320 can do but 36 knots is a LOT of crosswind for any large jet and the gust makes it that much harder to handle.

[Earl]

It's not outstanding airmanship, it's just the opposite IMHO. Crappy airmanship got them into the situation in the first place. How many opportunities did they have to avoid this? 1. checking the weather forecast before takeoff 2. checking the weather conditions and forecast while en route 3. canceling or delaying the flight before takeoff 4. pre-planning to have enough fuel on board to divert to an alternate with a better forecast or runway facing into wind 5. diverting to one of those alternates. Even if you dismiss everything leading up to this video as somehow out of the control of the poor hapless pilots (not), the landing itself was obviously doomed on final and should have been recognized as such by the crew.

[sawdustinhershoes]

Der Spiegel, a German Newspaper, has said the winds were 56 mph and that the airplane encountered a gust of wind and wind shear when trying to land.

I'd imagine these guys were caught in wind that worsened when they were trying to land.

For those of you armchair pilots out there, you might want to remember Dallas Flight 151 that crashed over twenty years ago due to wind shear. That flight was landing and was then smacked down onto the highway and the end of the airport by a sudden wind shear. I think either all or almost all the people on board were killed and people in cars were also crushed by the plane. I do remember a big puppy who survived in the cargo hold of the plane.

I bet those German pilots were real heros, not the baffoons portrayed by the commentors here.

[MajorKong]

I'm no "armchair pilot". I'm a professional pilot with over 4000 hours of jet time, most of it in "heavies". The Delta L1011 that crashed in Dallas years ago was due to a microburst, which is a very powerful wind shear associated with thunderstorms. A microburst is a powerful column of air moving downwards and outwards from the bottom of a storm. What you would see in the cockpit is a sudden strong headwind that shortly reverses itself into a very strong tailwind.

Because of the Delta crash, we practice a windshear escape maneuver in the simulator.

The Lufthansa aircraft possibly encountered a gust, but nothing at all like the type that brought down the Delta aircraft.

[GerryS]

Crosswinds that severe, looks like extremely poor judgment by the pilots to me-
He should have waited, or diverted to a secondary. The only excuse would be insufficient fuel, and you would then have to look at pilot judgement again, they should take on extra fuel for emergencies.

[wadenelson1]

Absolutely agree.

Hailing these guys as heroes is ignorant. An excellent pilot is one who uses superior judgment to avoid situations which demand extraordinary flying skills.

[CitizenRob]

perhaps the keyword to consider in the story is "gusts" and considering this entire video is only 10 seconds long perhaps there was a gust during the landing and that is what caused this to play out the way it did.

[JBS]

Find the entire video. You'll see the pilot is experiencing gusts all the way in.

[CitizenRob]

I just noticed, the plane is actually going backwards just before it veers to the left off the runway. Wow.

[MagisterLudi]

Old East. European joke

The pilot comes on with the usual:" Ladies and Gentlemen we 're cruising at .... the weather is calm. we'll begin serving..... FU-U-U-U-CK.... WHAT DA ... THAT IS THE END....."

Stunned cabin.

In a few minutes pilot comes back on:" Sorry, we had a little mishap here. The stewardess just spilled some coffe on my uniform. You should see the front of my white pants."

A weak voice from coach:" You should see the back of my pants."

[Xander]

And to the people who are saying he should have gone into holding: It looks as though there was a wind gust that threw the plane crossways on approach, and at that point their speed and angle was as such to where they couldn't abort the landing (yes, it happens).

Most pilots would have tried to stick with it and gone for a hard landing. These guys had the wherewithall to get wheels up again.

[Earl]

Most pilots wouldn't get themselves into that situation to start with.

[Stayalert]

AMEN. Most would not have attempted landing until wind died down.

[Xander]

I say this is an owner/pilot of a single engine plane:

Dude, that's hardcore. Well done getting off the ground again after the wing hit pavement.

[MajorKong]

I say this as a professional pilot with over 4000 hours of jet time. They screwed up big time.

[Earl]

Xander, I recommend you take the FAA course called "The Art of Aeronautical Decision Making" which is found here: http://www.faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/course_catalog.aspx

[Xander]

And I recommend going to Germany sometime, where it's not uncommon for wind gusts to suddenly go from temperate to unbelievable in the blink of an eye.

[nyblue]

Great. Now I'll think about this every time I land.

[JBS]

Ain't but three parts of the flight that are dangerous - take off, landing and the bit in between.

[speakingtruth2power]

Obviously commercial flying is dangerous but not as dangerous as walking down a street

in a small Texas town. I'm glad the plane was able to get off again and I'm glad that granny

in Texas (comments closed) didn't shoot that Danish Reporter. Rednecks with guns are bad

enough but when states tell you it's OK to shoot someone for being on your lawn, you gotta

wonder if the NRA, our third largest lobby after AARP and PNAC, has our best interests at heart.

[Bystander]

Either try to focus on the topic or spew on another blog.

[MagisterLudi]

SpeakingNonsense2, go play your six degree of separation game elsewhere.

[factotem]

fuck. I had a landing like this at Orly once.

[kellygrrrl]

yikes!

[Navy26Yrs]

Almost Gandhi With The Windy on that one.

[fumes]

he needed a tail hook didn't he!