Difficult landing

Astronuc

I've been in some hair-raising landing conditions, but nothing like this. This pilot is amazing.

Pilot hailed for response to stormy conditions
Tip of Lufthansa jet grazes runway before pilot gets it back in the air
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23446713/

Airline spokesman Wolfgang Weber said the plane was rocked by wind clocked at 250 kph (155 mph) as it tried to land!

Video of attempted landing - Lufthansa flight at Hamburg
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540...46303#23446303

Moonbear

I saw that on the news this morning! Yikes! I had missed the story lead-in when I turned on the TV, and was expecting the rest of the report to be about the crash until he got airborne again. Amazing!

Ivan Seeking

I bet that a few people had to change their shorts after that one, including the pilots!

ManDay

Yeah that's been on CNN all over the day. Bless our german pilots :D

Moonbear

No doubt! I'm surprised there were no injuries (that's what was reported)...they must have been lucky they had no passengers with any heart conditions.

hypatia

That was really something to see, glad I wasen't on it.

Math Jeans

We have been getting plenty of wind over here in AZ as well.

It got up to 50mph yesterday I believe.

Andre

In our books this is not very profesional. A good pilot solves difficult situations but a superior pilot sees that he never gets in difficult situations in the first place. The storm was well forecasted and the warnings were out. he should not have made that attempt.

let me rephrase that: a good pilot has superior skills to solve difficult situations but a superior pilot uses his superior judgement to avoid situations that require his superior skills.

russ_watters

Yes, my first thought was why would they be attempting to land in such conditions?

RonL

I'm not sure i agree with Andre, and russ, why did he return and make a safe landing the next time around ? I'm not sure that even a dopler system could predict that wind gust.

lisab

...I want a superior pilot, please...!

turbo

I've had some scares on puddle-jumpers but not on passenger jets of that size. Amazing.

Cyrus

I can appreciate that. We had a stiff crosswind on landing today.

Poop-Loops

Holy crap! That thing was coming in at like 45º!

Moonbear

Yeah, that he was able to land okay on a second pass left me thinking it was just a random gust of some sort, not a steady wind that was predictable. Then again, once in a while, you have little choice if you got airborne before a bad weather system came in that wasn't projected to head that direction or be that bad when you took off (I didn't look where the flight originated) and don't have enough fuel to get to an airport that's past the storm system, or to keep circling until it passes.

Kurdt

Its been really gusting over here lately for no reason. We had up to 70mph a couple of days ago.

russ_watters

Also a good question. After almost crashing, why would you try again? Why would you not divert to another airport? It should at least be able to predict the conditions necessary for such a wind gust. That isn't your normal every-day wind gust - it can't exist unless associated with a massive thunderstorm or other kind of thermal.