For years, there has been pressure on airports to deal with wind sheer dangers. There have been tort actions for actions raising wind sheer and an avoidable cause. This video of a Lufthansa jet would indicate that it remains a serious problem, even at one of the world’s most advanced airports like Hamburg.
The video shows a Lufthansa jet carrying 131 passengers also crash and have its wing graze the runway. The pilot landed after a second attempt. It appears seconds for an air disaster. The plane is an Airbus A320 and hits winds believed to be as high as 155 mph.
For the video, click here
First of all, in response to the user above, some airplanes, especially commercial airliners like this one, ARE equipped with a “go around” button. In fact, I just flew a Cessna 172 the other day that has a go-around button on it. It automatically pitches the aircraft up 5 degrees and will even fly the holding pattern for you. Also, everyone needs to do some research before they make such harsh judgments. The pilot did everything right in this situation. The winds did not consistently present a crosswind component of 140 knots. The phenomenon which took place is called a “micro burst.” These are typically associated with storms, which is accurate in this case. The micro burst took place right as the pilot was secured into his landing. When he lost control of the aircraft due to the sudden enormous wind, he made the perfect judgment in order to take back off and return for a second landing.
This is a clear breach of aviation law.
You do not need to be a pilot or ATC to know that the person in charge of this flight was criminally negligent. Had the result been more catastrophic, the pilot would have been responsible.
International aviation law covers both approach cross wind and visibility limits.
At long finals, well before the video starts, the pilot should have executed a missed approach and diverted to its weather alternate.
(Vincent Caminiti – there is no ‘go around’ button, it is a procedure – or maybe in you MS flight simulator there is…).
The only aircraft I know of that could land when in such a degree of yaw would be a B-52 as all it’s landing trucks are steerable. About the moment the video starts is when I’m sure alarms were already ringing on the flight deck and whomever was in control of the plane should have aborted and came around for a second try. That fool needs to have his license revoked.
PS Let’s not forget the ATC’s. Why didn’t they wave him off under these conditions?
I must state that any pilot is entitled to their opinion. However, any pilot with a fair amount of hours also realizes that one cannot second guess a mishap or near-miss based on an external video alone. Further, the co-pilot was actually handling the landing, but I do not know if or when the Pilot took over. Frankly, I believe we all are better served by presenting facts as facts, and perhaps offering some basic opinions without attempting to assign blame without further details
I think the driver must have been very strested to get the plane landed properly with the wind pushing the plane
Hi look at my wigit
I dont think that the piolt should have attempted the landing for safty reasons
pie pie
It’s spelled “wind shear”.
My first instinct upon seeing this was to recoil in shock that the pilot even made the attempt in the first place. That the flying in rescuing the craft was exceptional is beside the point – this looks quite easy to judge as a layman as a landing which shouldn’t have been attempted. But who to assign blame is the other question. With turnaround times and landing times being ever shortened, and unreasonable demands being put on pilots by head offices a) to fly when they shouldn’t and b) to route where they shouldn’t, it was only a matter of time before we’d see a video like this in Europe rather than Thailand.
Give me high speed rail any day, thanks. I’ll gladly pay the extra.
I hadn’t read all that much into it. It’s not an anomaly to encounter cross winds no matter how well they dialed in the runway during construction. That’s why one learns how to deal with them.
That being said I wouldn’t know any of the particulars of the incident other than what I saw in the video. There was no indication that the pilot didn’t listen to reports, talk with ATC Approach, or had any connection to the Video, other than being the subject.
There is considerable indication that the episode on the runway was severe. That’s the only thing that’s clear. With all due respect Ben, you’re not Judge are you?
This is a horrible demonstration of flying. The pilot is required to have listened to the automated weather report before landing and was clearly busting crosswind maximums for the aircraft. Even if he had landed safely without scraping the wing he should be FIRED for risking the lives of the people on board. Flying a commercial aircraft is not your personal opportunity to make a youtube video for your friends to see. All commercial IFR flights are required to have alternates precisely for this reason, you land somewhere else instead of being a nut case that nobody wants to entrust with the lives of passengers.
“Almost crashing” is the general definition of landing any aircraft, but this one certainly came a lot closer than is usual. I agree with Vincent on one hand, fine piloting. On the other hand, one would question his judgment in even making the attempt considering the conditions.
Just glad this didn’t end up as an episode of MAYDAY!
The pilot of that aircraft did an incredible job of avoiding a disaster. The first part of the clip ( with the aircraft coming towards the camera) shows an incredible amount of crosswind already affecting the aircraft. The visibly changing orientation of the aircraft is the pilot actually ruddering the aircraft into the wind (yaw) in order to counteract the effects of the wind blowing across the runway, so it was by design that he would position the aircraft on the extreme right side of the runway.
There is a button in the cockpit “Go Around” that essentially is designed to get the aircraft in the air again by simultaneously and automatically putting all the controls in the position to get it back in the air. It was probably too late to use that feature and with cross wind-speeds possibly even greater than the aircraft’s airspeed – this is a piece of fine flying.
One safety tool that certainly worked was this pilot’s training and knowledge. From watching the clip, the pilot made the determination to go full power much sooner than one might think or he would have had no control whatsoever of the aircraft.