This is a pretty scary landing attempt that happened in Germany - they're lucky they were able to abort and go around for a second try...
VIDEO LINKY (http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=&vid=48c3008b-847f-451c-88ca-9f972160c35d)
I've seen videos of testing the "maximum demonstrated crosswind component" of an airliner at Mojave or similar places (Palmdale?), and they bring these bad boys in at a pretty serious crab angle and then put them up/down the runway just prior to touch down. Its impressive to see a 777 literally 25-30 degrees off axis, nose pointed at the camera WAY off to one side, cranking it down to the tarmac.
In watching that video, as the guy derotates he gets blown WAYY over to the left. Either someone wasn't paying close attention to the wind in the tower to say "Uh, hey, you might want to orbit for a bit" or there was some kind of a weird wind shear/microburst to one side of the runway. Judging from his massive crab angle on final, I'd be inclined to suggest the former before the latter.
Scary. Very scary. Thats why airline captains get paid the big bucks. The whole "..use of superior skills..." thing
For grins and giggles we tried that at our training center today. I have a couple of friends that are instructors and, we loaded the weather conditions for Hamburg into our Embraer 145 sim. We all then took turns trying to land. I managed to get it on the runway but, it wasn't pretty. When they landed the winds were sustained at 45 knots and gusting to 75 knots. They were 30-40 degrees off the runway. Pretty darn scary.
Always have an extra set of underwear in your map case!
GC
Something tells me that the reporter was a little bit off on her numbers. 150 miles per hour? I'm pretty sure that landing in a category five hurricane would have been a teeny bit harder than that. Not to mention the fact that the two guys making the video with a handheld camera would have a shine of a time standing in one spot holding the camera steady.
The original video in its entirety (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueJeC2pxxbM)
Click the pic for damage shots.
(http://www.go33.tv/images/wing_damage3.jpg) (http://www.go33.tv/crash_pics.htm)
Looks like a gust of wind got under the right wing and they just didn't counter in time. Why you always keep the windward wing down....
Either way, bravo zulu to the flight crew for salvaging what could have been a real bad mess into a small "oops" with just a little bit of scraped/bent metal.
In Flight school we always learned one thing.
PUCKER FACTOR, PUCKER FACTOR!!!!
They were rather foolish for even attempting to land in those conditions. As soon as they realized that they were blown off centerline (probably 100 ft AGL or so prior to initial attempt) they should've aborted. They always had the option of finding an alternate or holding until conditions improved. Poor judgement by the crew.
Regardless, if I were on the flight (or sitting behind the controls) I'd be changing my shorts and the shorts of the person next to me.
gee this is one hot topic... we saw this video on Tuesday night at our unit meeting, everyone was cracking up over it... sure its funny watching it... will it be funny when YOU are on it? :D
Thats some tough work they did there, gratzy!
Quote from: A.Member on March 06, 2008, 03:10:08 PM
They were rather foolish for even attempting to land in those conditions. As soon as they realized that they were blown off centerline (probably 100 ft AGL or so prior to initial attempt) they should've aborted. They always had the option of finding an alternate or holding until conditions improved. Poor judgement by the crew.
Ditto.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience often comes from bad judgement.
Quote from: A.Member on March 06, 2008, 03:10:08 PM
They were rather foolish for even attempting to land in those conditions. As soon as they realized that they were blown off centerline (probably 100 ft AGL or so prior to initial attempt) they should've aborted. They always had the option of finding an alternate or holding until conditions improved. Poor judgement by the crew.
Thats assuming they had a choice in the matter. Who knows, maybe they were too short on fuel or were having mechanical failures preventing them from holding or diverting. OR perhaps they had the same problems farther out, and landing at that airport
was their diversion because no other airport was an option. But, at the same time I could be wrong, who knows.