Worst crosswind landing attempt I've ever seen

[Sparky]

I enjoy a good frisky landing, and I've had my fair share. But this is one I'd draw the line at. It happened at Hamburg yesterday. Left wing strike, lots of soiled seats, and probably the end of a flying career. Grab it while you can - this one's disappearing for some reason(!):

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ddb_1204404185

[matk]

Bl**dy Hell that's scary!

[andydclements]

You have to question why the pilot didn't abort sooner.

Andy

[Sparky]

Absolutely. I hear the crosswind was above limits for that a/c anyhow.

[andydclements]

Who should we feel most sorry for?

Pilot? No, they chose to attempt, and chose not to abort early when the plane was at nearly 45 degrees to course.

Flight Crew? No, they chose the role, knowing you get some really hairy landings, and some crashes.

Engineers picking up the pieces? No, it keeps them busy and in work.

Passengers? Maybe, although every time you get on an aircraft you run the risk of a crash you've just dodged the bigger risk of crashing on the way to the airport.

Cleaners? HMM. yes, I think, they've not volunteered for dangerous missions, not getting a pleasure trip from it, but are certainly going to have one messy job ahead of them.

Andy

[SMAC67]

Looked pretty stable approach until the gust shifted the aircraft off the centreline. A320 bit of a handful in a crosswind, that's why I like Boeing aircraft, although anything with a high wing is good. Doubt anyone got disciplined as that is the nature of weather, it always liable to turn round and bite you on the ass.

Good recovery and excellent decision to go-around after departing the centre-line. Please note that unlike piston engines, high bypass turbo fans take a long time to spool up.

As for having another go, why not, you have to get back on the ground and Western Europe was very windy yesterday, so not too many options.

In addition, the A320 computers also put in a control input when a wing drops, which can be a bit disconcerting for the pilot.

Doubt you will find a pilot who hasn't been in a very similar position. I guess that 's why we get the big bucks.

P.s. Anyone know the x-wind limitations on a A320?

Edited March 2, 2008 by SMAC67

[Sparky]

I believe x-wind limit for 320 is either 35 or 38kt. Pretty sure HAM was around that mark yesterday! Left wing damaged, but not as bad as it looked.

[molemot]

Crosswind limits are generally "demonstrated" crosswind limits, and depend on the strongest crosswinds encountered during flight testing...higher crosswind operations may be possible, but you're your own test pilot!! At least the crew did finally take the decision to go around..a bit late, but far better than trying to recover and land from that position. Seemed to be a bit high on the round out and a very gusty crosswind got under the starboard wing. What happened to the aircraft after this landing attempt? did they divert to somewhere with a more into wind runway? Always interesting to watch the flight deck crew earning their money in a strong crosswind,as the originator of this clip realised!

[mayevora]

Yep, now I remember why I gave up flying a couple of years ago. Don't miss those moments at all.

[Setras]

On bbc today...... LEF the foremost source B)

[CharlieC]

What happened to the aircraft after this landing attempt? did they divert to somewhere with a more into wind runway? Always interesting to watch the flight deck crew earning their money in a strong crosswind,as the originator of this clip realised!

John - they went round and tried it succesfully on a different runway apparently.

Edited March 4, 2008 by CharlieC

[th4neuk]

That was scary.

Glad we aren't flying anywhere in the near future!!!!

Stick with the trusty car.

Cheers

[molemot]

There's a very good thread running on this topic on PPRUNE...the Professional Pilot's RUmour Network, and nothing whatsoever to do with Pilot Officer Prune of fond RAF memory(!)...and it would seem that Airbus fly-by-wire aeroplanes are known to be difficult to handle in strong and especially gusty crosswind conditions. It has something to do with the control laws implemented in the software, which means that the sidestick controller controls the rate of control application and is not directly linked to the control surfaces. It has been known for the control stick to reach the stops without being able to satisfactorily affect the aeroplanes attitude in roll..also the rudder is very powerful, so when using the rudder to straighten up the flightpath in a crosswind situation, it is easy to get into overcontrol. Secondary effects of controls: rudder produces yaw, then roll, which in this case could account for the left wing drop in association with a gust from the right. Scary stuff on the flight deck, I'm sure. Damage seems to be a bent left wingtip..but I'll bet there will be much inspection of the wing structure and the fin attachment points, too, remembering the Airbus which lost it's fin over New York just post 9-11. As Charlie says, they went around again and landed successfully on runway 33, more into wind than the 23 runway on which the incident occurred. At the risk of teaching me Grandma to suck eggs, runways are numbered by the first 2 digits of their magnetic heading, so 23 is about 230 and 33 would be 330. As the earth's magnetic field shifts about, so do runway headings, so Heathrow's 27 runways used to be 28, iirc. Anyway, any landing you can walk away from......!

[talon]

More power to him for getting it down safely in the next go round. I still believe I would need a change of shorts.

[iainskea]

That's why F-111s have a tail hook and a big arrestor cable over the runway.

Iain

[Bibs]

Am i remembering correctly that that is called a RHAG system and uses rotating paddles anti-freeze to stop the aircraft? I'm sure I saw that at RAF Manston in 1988!

[CharlieC]

There's been more info about this in the German news this from stern.de

http://www.stern.de/politik/panorama/:Miss...ash/613105.html

The plane was being landed by the 24 year old co-pilot(in) and it was the captain that actually hit the throttles at the last minute.

The article here says the pilots chose the runway however my gf (lufthansa stewardess) tells me the cockpit get instruction from the tower on which runway to use.

My question is why the pilot continued to try landing the plane in such a skew when the wind was clearly extremely dangerous from the earliest part of the clip?

[andyblackman777]

Well they do call it the scarebus!!

Interestingly enough, everyone has a go at the pilot after an incident like this but when you divert to a more suitable airport, due to high winds or fog, most of the passengers are extremely hacked off and can't understand why you didn't try to land at the original airport!

Looks like he got caught out by big gust at about 25 foot. Tricky from the right because as the wind gusts it tends to veer and become more of a crosswind so the crosswind component increases. A cross wind from the left could be less tricky because as the wind gusts it veers again and becomes more of a headwind so the crosswind component doesn't increase as much. (in the northern hemisphere)

Bear in mind you don't have to take off but you do have to land, somewhere!

Andy