Lufthansa jet trying to land in big crosswinds

sarahp

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Did you guys see this on the news tonight???


How scary is that???? Apparently the wing clipped the ground, at which point the pilot decided to abort the landing. He was cleared for landing, so I hope the air traffic control people get a hiding!

I think the pilot did an awesome job to realise it was too dangerous to land, and be able to pull out of it. Apparently he flew around for another 10 minutes, then safely landed on a different runway.
 
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sarahp

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Originally Posted by capt_jordi

wow... but why in the world did they try to land in the first place?!
Because air traffic control gave them clearance. The crosswinds at ground level were much worse than up in the sky. I'm guessing either air traffic control stuffed up, or they didn't know the winds were that strong and in that direction at ground level (both possibilities are pretty scary...).
 

natalie_ca

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They tried to land, touched down, clipped a wing, slid off the runway and then decided to take the plane back up again!??!

The pilot should lose his license for that! That plane shouldnt have even attempted to land in that wind condition. They should have pulled up and circled and tried from a different direction and if that new direction ran into winds like that, they should have taken it up again and circled.

The very first time I flew, landing back in Winnipeg was a nightmare! We ran into winds like part way through the decent to land and the pilot had to take the plane up and circle and approach from a different direction, only to have to do it again and again. I think it took us almost an hour to before we managed to land.
 

theimp98

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Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

They tried to land, touched down, clipped a wing, slid off the runway and then decided to take the plane back up again!??!

The pilot should lose his license for that! That plane shouldnt have even attempted to land in that wind condition. They should have pulled up and circled and tried from a different direction and if that new direction ran into winds like that, they should have taken it up again and circled.

The very first time I flew, landing back in Winnipeg was a nightmare! We ran into winds like part way through the decent to land and the pilot had to take the plane up and circle and approach from a different direction, only to have to do it again and again. I think it took us almost an hour to before we managed to land.
its called add power, and get the heck back up. from the look of the video, If he had even attempted to keep it on the ground the first time bad things where going to happen. chases are, it was a strong gust that caused it.
at least from what i saw it look likes he was fine, then got blowen off. It happens. lot more times then i care to remember.

you cant try from a different direction you have to land as much into a head wind as you can. (always land and take off into the wind)

lol once on a flight, the ride was so rough that people where throwing up, and the women next to me was making the sign of the cross and praying. It took three attempts to put the plane down, twice the the plane was blowen of the was pushed off right before landing. When told we were goign to make one more try, you should have heard people complaing about , they had to meet a another flight, or had people waiting for them etc etc etc.
 

natalie_ca

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Originally Posted by theimp98

at least from what i saw it look likes he was fine, then got blowen off. It happens. lot more times then i care to remember..
If you look at that video he was all over the place on the approach. It wasn't just as he touched ground. He was having a hard time keeping the plane even straight as he approached the airport.
 
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sarahp

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I guess he expected the winds to be less strong at ground level? I imagine he was yelling at the air controllers trying to figure out the best course of action.
 

theimp98

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wind like that, always makes things very hard to land.
it put a correction for the wind, then it changes, you adjust for that, then the winds change, again.

and sudden strong winds, at the point where the wheels are about to touch or just did, can make for a very bad day. you can start to get pushed over, or find your self pointed in a dir you dont want.
its normal to hit the power, strighten out the plane and get back in the air.
 

natalie_ca

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I'm just glad that no one was hurt or killed. I imagine it will be a very long time before many of those passangers fly again. Something like that sure would deter my from flying.
 

jane_vernon

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Holy Moly!

I just saw this on the news! Unbelievable! That pilot should be given a medal for being able to get out of it!
 

fwan

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there was a small hurricane here in Frankfurt on Saturday, one of my neighbours windows shattered, there is still glass everywhere on the street. The cats were freaked out, and many trees were broken. I have never seen anything like this during winter in Germany. I knew there was something wrong on friday night as it was incredibly warm for winter.

Interesting part of it was? I havent seen any article on it on the news!
 

mrblanche

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Many of those pilots are former military "heavy" pilots, and have just unbelievable training. You can find pictures of the wing damage from the first try, but the very tips of the wings are designed to be "sacificial" and easily replaceable.

It is very complicated to switch the landing system from one runway to another, so I imagine they hoped the gusts were a temporary thing. Here in Dallas, when we get a big wind shift, it involve a lot of traffic shuffling while the change the traffic pattern.
 
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