Flaps down, hairs up - you are number doom for landing

[Skybird]

A Lufthansa A320 almost crashed at Hamburg, due to the severe thunderstorm we just have had over here.

First accuses aiming at the pilot to have made a wrong decision to choose runway 23 for landing were relativised soon by comments that the 23 was the one with fully active ILS procedure.

After circling half an hour, the pilot then approached runway 33, with a finally safe landing and better wind conditions.

Just a bad day at the office...

[AVGWarhawk]

Tell me that pilot was not sweating bullets!!!!

[August]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Tell me that pilot was not sweating bullets!!!!

Bet the passengers weren't too nonchalant about it either....

Pilot did a good job recovering though...

[mrbeast]

Saw that on the news looked pretty hairy to me!

[bookworm_020]

He won't be getting the best landing award, but at least he managed to stop it from crashing! I wonder what the pasangers thoughts were like when they approached the runway for the second time!:hmm:

[sonar732]

There were at least 3 times that the plane shouldn't have recovered.

All said...this pilot either has nerves of steal...or just plain luck!

I wonder how many years of flying they have under their belt...surely it will be in the news soon with that question. I'm also surprised that we aren't seeing any interviews being conducted online as once the newsmedia gets a hold of it, Lufthansa's phone is probably ringing off the hook for request of that sort.

[TteFAboB]

I had a similar experience in an ATR-42, which was less dramatic, given the size of the plane and the fact that the pilot aborted before actually touching down. For a moment though, it did appear like the tip of the wing would scratch the runway. But there was no go around, we diverted to an airport with less crosswind and waited one hour untill the wind was gone to go back and land there safely.

[sonar732]

Originally Posted by TteFAboB

I had a similar experience in an ATR-42, which was less dramatic, given the size of the plane and the fact that the pilot aborted before actually touching down. For a moment though, it did appear like the tip of the wing would scratch the runway. But there was no go around, we diverted to an airport with less crosswind and waited one hour untill the wind was gone to go back and land there safely.

I remember in the 90's all of the problems ATR's had with icing.

Originally Posted by Skybird

I have to give him credit on a good save there. What is that? A 20 degree crab? At that point, I'd beg for a different runway.....at a less windy airport.

[Sea Demon]

Originally Posted by Zayphod

I have to give him credit on a good save there. What is that? A 20 degree crab? At that point, I'd beg for a different runway.....at a less windy airport.

Yeah, but if I owned the airline, I'd have to question his judgement in proceeding to commit to a landing that shouldn't have even been attempted. This is a situation that missed approaches are for.

[August]

I read somewhere that the pilot wasn't flying during that landing attempt. It was the inexperienced co-pilot. Either way it was a fine recovery.

[RickC Sniper]

I agree with Sonar732 that the right wing also touched. You can see debris or dust that was kicked up.

Amazing video and I think very lucky for all who were aboard that plane.

It doesn't matter the best landing, lucky they are still alive and got to land without a scratch.

[Skybird]

News today said it was the copilot flying, a young woman. On the photos of the two, the pilot did not look much older, too. Training the youngsters all nice and well - but for the decision not to fly himself in that kind of extreme weather the pilot without doubt will take fire.

[Blacklight]

This video reminded me of a flight that I took from Florida back to Connecticut. We left just as this HUGE storm was coming in. We were out over the ocean and the storm was basicly right behind us. Suddenly the planed just dropped and we were weightless for several secconds (and it wasn't just a quick little drop.. this was litterally severaly secconds of floating around). Then the plane reccovered, and then this happened again maybe two or three more times. Everyone in my passenger area thought we were going to die. it was like riding in NASA's Vomit Commet. Thankfully everyone had their seat belts on and the meal and drinks hadn't been served.. otherwise, it would have been VERY messy.

The entire flight until Connecticut was really bumpy and bouncy but thankfully no other big drops occured.