There was a storm over Düsseldorf’s airport last week. Things got a bit hairy, with strong crosswinds that made landings pretty hard — and caused some missed approaches. Honestly, I get all wimpy looking at them, but I can’t stop watching.
Maybe because I will never forget the “landing” at the peak of the snow clusterf*ck in New York’s JFK last January. Here are some more extremely scary crosswind landings, for your own masochistic enjoyment. [Thanks Roger!]
A classic.
A compilation with some really scary ones.
BrightNobleWoman
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 10:29 AMThese pilots are amazing! It seems to be a point of pride to have the nose-wheel contact the tarmac at the centre line.
Having watched this I have more faith in their abilities; both to land and to make a judgement call not to land.
Gg
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 10:45 AMAgree, more people should have as much faiths in pilots
Happy to see some ansett video in there haha
DarthDVD
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 2:32 PMSkill!
Johnno
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 5:45 PMAnd this is why the guys in 2fast2furious are in fact a bunch of pussies
Sally
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 11:00 PMI remember my first time I did a crosswind landing, it is quiet difficult, and an odd feeling flying towards the threshold on such an angle, trying to keep the plane on the centerline.
@BrightNobleWoman, yes it is a good feeling when you land on the center line of the runway, especially with a strong crosswind, just as the feeling you get when you do a really good smooth landing.
Jubbing
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 11:11 PMThis is a standard process of landing used by Pilot’s when the wind is at an extreme level. Very skilled, but move along.
david
Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 9:04 AMThese Pilots and the engineers who design these aircraft do not get paid enough.
Magnificent machines.
Peter
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 9:51 AMThe above comments are right, I have had the rare “privelage” of repairing two Boeing 747SP aircraft with broken wing gear trunnions resulting from poor maintenance (lack of bearing lubrication) and breaking off in crosswind conditions…these are remarkable aircraft and the pilots are also no less remarkable.
Sam
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:23 PMInterestingly, video two isn’t a good example of a crosswind landing, but an instance of a botched approach saved at the last minute.
The video is taken at Hong Kong’s old airport at Kai Tak, which involved a difficult visual approach procedure which lines up with the runway at the last minute. You can see the windsock in the bottom right at 1:10, indicating at most 10-15 knots of crosswind – not nearly enough to warrant such an extreme manoeuvre. What seems to have actually happened, is that the pilot has misaligned with the runway and has had to correct very close to the ground.
So not necessarily an example of skill, but one of poor judgement.