Plane scrapes wing during landing in Germany March 1, 2008

[robag71]

I remember that day. I was on an other smaller plane, wanting to land in Vienna.

I've never seen such a strong wind before, especially not beneath me. :)

Two different layers of clouds were moving real fast in opposite directions.

I have to admit, it was a little scary.

[Lcdyu]

This video isn't from CNN notice that none of the anchors talk and where is the little strip of other news at the bottom? [anyone can add the cnn logo to the video]

[merlin07756]

WTH.. den Flieger verziehts..

[jfjenofhrenon]

The wing never 'scrapes' the runway

[cankzilla]

@jfjenofhrenon During the critical moment at :39 seconds into the video keep your eye on the the left landing gears - they are in the air the whole team. It had to be the wing.

[jfjenofhrenon]

@cankzilla yea I thought it hit as well when I first saw it but then they were saying on the TV news that it came close but didn't hit

[cankzilla]

@jfjenofhrenon that's crazy - yah, the only wheels i see hitting the ground are the right wheels - maybe there's something i'm missing....

[chaosopher23]

The safest thing to do was done; the pilot kept the bird flying and the airspeed high enough to do so. I'd raise a glass to that one.

[rivergarcia]

why he missed approach in low feet It must 300 feet above when he attempt a missed approach.

[SpeedyNeutrino43]

The Boeing B-52 does have main gear that allows the fuselage to be as much as 13 degrees off center while the wheels are lined up with the runway.

[ricklude]

WOW! A classic Chinese landing.

One Wing Low. :-)

[m52spy]

Damn close. Pilot did the right thing and aborted.

[Quadio1]

do mine for christmas

[therflash]

i'm not a pilot nor do i know anything about planes but why does the plane have to ride straight forward on the road? if all the wheels could turn like on shopping cart, the plane can land in any angle so this wouldn't happen. tell what you think

[phillipislbj]

well how would you steer it on the ground then?

[sonydude46]

Shopping cart wheels aka Casters, have a tendency to flap around wildly when subject to really high speeds. Landing at 200knots would surely toss the plane off the runway.

Pilots will land sideways like you saw because of the crosswind, plane is blown off course, so you compensate and fly into it. At the last moment, you kick the rudder and straighten out when landing.

[therflash]

yea, the last moments seems crazy, maybe there could be some automatic mechanic which would rotate the wheels few degrees in case of strong crosswind, i didn't mean they should be free turning arround like on shopping cart, just the possibility to turn them a little, planes will get rid of that last moment, when they need to straighten forward, before the front wheel touches the ground, just a theory

[ryanhaart]

@therflash "shopping cart" wheels on a plane would not work, because they would be too unstable.

[timoseus]

it wasnt a huricane, but it was during an orkan... thats what strong storms are called in Germany

[wittwenhaus]

german standart

[mach7rc]

major crosswind in effect, I be the pilot shit himself on that one.

[CapitanoGUC]

it must be a woman driving ....:)

[famas690]

the co-pilot was landing, and it actually was a woman^^

[CapitanoGUC]

you see - thats what i´m saying ....:-)

[ColaPac]

@CapitanoGUC

It really was . . . a woman landed the plane under this hard condition !

[JOHNNYCFC18]

@CapitanoGUC flying u mean lol

[CapitanoGUC]

@JOHNNYCFC18 i wouldn´t call that "flying" ...:-/

[JOHNNYCFC18]

@CapitanoGUC well i u said woman driving the plane u cant drive a plane lol, what u must of ment was woman pilot lol

[ihavetehdrugs]

@CapitanoGUC Are you serious dude? Try landing a 300 ton airplane in soggy conditions and let's how that goes for you.

[CapitanoGUC]

@ihavetehdrugs thats eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasy ...:-/

[ihavetehdrugs]

@CapitanoGUC If you say so.

[CapitanoGUC]

@ihavetehdrugs yep ...:-D

[ThePieMan159]

some1 here think its a Hurricane

[altaf5035]

everyone died

[mccoley98]

since when does starting a sentence with capital letters determine your intelligence streetstream... were not on trial or having an exam.

OH MY GOD your Display name has not capital 'S' in it...

maybe it was all just training for these conditions.

Not everyone starts a career amazingly good.

maybe you should be asking yourself why it was cloudy that day instead.

The level of intelligence in some people never fails to amuse me.

They just like shiny things and things that go wrong.

Rant over!!

[milani0075]

Maybe the captain should have taken the controls for this, himself. He's obviously more skilled, being the captain, and, given the conditions, it would have made sense. I hate flying precisely because of these things. I'm not comfortable with leaving my life in someone's (captain) hands who then decides to hand over control to his co-pilot, despite of the dangerous conditions.

[MBjongen21]

conditions were within safe limits for this plane?????????

The wing of that plane is scratching the ground. That's no indicator to you the pilot made a misjudgment?

You're kidding right? It seems more likely the pilot suffer from an inflated ego

[hgroberts]

There is no hard limit for cross wind landing published by the manufacture, only a demonstrated cross wind component. The airlines POH may have limits, but I assure you that you have landed many times above the demonstrated cross wind component, if you didn't you wouldn't have made half of your flights.

[MBjongen21]

That pilot is absolutely an idiot! he shouldn´t try to land. He is responsible for many lives and in this circumstances he obviously had to divert his plane to another destination nearby.

[streetstream]

You abviously know nothing about this incidnet. First of all, it's SHE. The female co-pilot was trying to land and the conditions were within safe limits for this plane. The second (succesful) landing attempt was caaied out by the captain.

[schtoppen]

What is he supposed to do??

fly around for a couple hours until the wind dies down?

jackass

[C420sailor]

You are obviously not a pilot because you have no idea what the fuck you are talking about.

[milani0075]

I spoke to a British Airways pilot recently about this, and he told me that it was pilot error, and that that should never have happened. Pilots sometimes forget little things, when in the middle of a tough job, like landing in difficult conditions. He IS responsible for a lot of lives, though, and so must therefore keep a cool head. Chesley Sullinberger would have been the ideal candidate, I think :)

[streetstream]

Why does everyone bring up Chesley sullinberger? He did a great job by ditching his plane in the hudson, but he also had a great ammount of luck. He has alot of skill, but there was a great amount of luck involved too.

[dahekc]

not easy!! he's good pilot who made right decision!

[agent866]

he's not a bad pilot he's ordered to land in that weather as you can see is not easy to land in that weather he is a fuckin master i mean scratch wing if he wasnt as skill as he was he would took that wing off

[allstarbb07]

is every one ok

[chimandude]

Another drunk German Pilot... That was nothing... I land in cross-winds stronger than that all the time in a taildragger... Looks like the Kraut's need a little practice...Give-em auto pilot and they forget how to fly... Amateur at best...

[Kupferstecher2007]

you are a drunk pilot....this pilot of Lufthansa----->SKILL!!!!HE IS A HERO

[XBOX4EVA]

listen at him, american arrogance in person.

[ridebikesfast]

your sentence makes no grammatical sense.

[streetstream]

Coming from a person who can't start a sentence with a capital letter?

[Watsupo]

Geez, reading these comments are horrendous.. let's see all of YOU try to land that plane in those conditions.. oh wait.. Let's see you do a nice landing in PERFECT conditions! you CAN'T! So back off these Pilots, That was a helluva try, and they did the thing any pilot would do.. go around

[virginianboy1012]

u woulda been able to tell if the wing scraped the runway

[streetstream]

Are you saying it didn't scape the runway?

[virginianboy1012]

no im saying it did

[pacovl46]

leck mich fett am arsch, des haettet ruckzuck 300 tote sein koennen

[klauzes]

Try landing a model plane before offending the pilots. I say they are skilled and courageous for attempting to land in such high winds

[comradejose]

I wonder how many people left that flight with clean underwear....

[germanyweapons]

true lol

[pbcmbeez22]

the pilots reacted so quickly that if it were just a little later the plane could have veered off the runway. Those are some good pilots.

[QuiGonFan]

I saw that on sky news, i think it was the "video" of the day or somethin

[KillARadee]

Stop insulting the pilots. Im giving the captian and the co-pilot credit to handle the plane after that awful sideways landing. It was a pilot reflex to gear up and fly instead gearing down and try to slow down, If he turned the heat down the left wing may hit the floor and cause damage and set the passangers life on risk.

[jarashawixzagzoog]

hell yeah they done a great job

[comradejose]

True dat. lol

[surferei]

that shouldn't have even been attempted unless under emergency conditions.

[klauzes]

Special conditions ?! They are under constant stress from the air line,isn't that enough? If they where to cancel that landing ,presumingly they had enough fuel, there careers would have been seriously compromised ... If this where a perfect world ...then YES they shoudn't have done that.

[Nadzz13]

this was crazy!! i would never have flown under those windy conditions!! could have definitely been prevented...luckly it turned out pretty good!!

[supertruckertx]

I dont' think anyone has to worry about you FLYING under those conditions. I'm sure you're not even qualified to fly a PAPER airplane. Have a nice day.

[LEXUS96ACURA06]

YOU CANT EVEN FLY

[eminentjonfrost]

Everyone on the plane was ok after that? Those were some great pilots. :)

[KingOrgasmusTwo]

imagine you sitting in that plane xD

[XxX44SMITH55XxX]

holly thats what you call a great pilot man nice job!

[reklamedame]

by the way: a good friend of mine ( a Luftshansa-pilot) said, that the pilots reacted very professionally. Quite hard - when you are in charge of over 200 peoples lives to act the right way...

[jetpilote]

reklamedame, hard to act the right way? You are paid to act the right way and not to make mistakes, or at least you used to be.

[arrefinfias]

fooodasse

impressionante, qualquer ouro teria deixado cair o avião, porra!

parabéns!

[reklamedame]

for everyone who doesn't know - there was a hurricane in Germany at this time and concerning the crosswinds, the pilots did a great job...

[HolyRomanPS3]

pilots were retards to even consider landing in them conditions

[reklamedame]

and what would you've done? just stay in the air until the fuel runs out??? great comment... really...

[jetpilote]

You don't depart to begin with or if conditions are inappropriate for landing you proceed to your alternate airport. You don't just go ahead and "go for it."

[zchivy17]

and what are the chances that someone whould be video taping at that exact moment? or do they videotape all landings

[ManiaCop100]

I know like what the fuck

[zchivy17]

i want to be a pilot and i am taking flying lessons so i know a little bit about this kind of stuff. The pilot did a great job here at aiming the plane the right way for the wind and he also did a good job pulling back out of it. I just want to know who the air traffic controller was that gave the all clear to land in 150 mph winds.

[jetpilote]

The pilot In Command is responsible for the operations of the aircraft. Not the Air Traffic Controller.

[seejfly]

Sorry Chrisfg. YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG! The pilot took out the the crosswind correction and that's why the right wing came up, and the left one hit the ground. The wind was coming right to left, the pilot needs to enter right aileron control and left rudder, and hold that configuration, even when the aircraft reaches the ground! Removing it results in what we saw.

[jetpilote]

You got that right. Hero? NO WAY! He caused the scrape. When applying the left rudder to straighten the crab for touchdown you must compensate, expect and prevent the right wing from coming up. I's simple areodymanics. As soon as it comes up with that wind you're history. Capt. go back to training.

[streetstream]

It's amazing to see how you don't know what happend, but still think you know everything. It wasn't the captain flying, it was the female co-pilot. The captain took over just after the wing strike and preformed the "go-around".

[dadecountyhustler305]

Women drivers

[gcmsboy1234]

AHAHAHAHA . Best one yet.

[mexicanalemundo]

Another reason I fly German Airlines.... Score one for Germany! Freakin awesome!

[Britishspitfire]

Great Save!

[DEYONJUSTINE6]

Now was the wind actually blowing that hard or was the Pilot drunk!! lol! J/k  hell of a job by him, I'd by him a drink!

[Chrissfg]

Microburst  must have been more than 50 knots to produce this

It takes seconds for the engines to respond to pilot's reaction and break the momentum, yet the plane was lifting from ground when it touched .

The pilot had applied power early and should be praised for such a good, timely decision,with no consequence to his flight

Guys , give credit where it is deserved,and keep flying!

Such skilled pilots keep Aviation travel safe and make us proud to be part of it

Chris.Flight instructor

[lorigee2]

That pilot is amazing...just amazing. They did an excellent job recoving. And yes crosswind landing is a @#$%#, only experienced it in private plane. Same recovery tactic by the way. I love the pilot.

[yamahawr450frider]

talk about a crosswind god how fast was it?

[crzymnkykiller]

on the news it said that the crosswind was about 150-175 mph

[N737KR]

are u kidding me? it doesnt even get that fast on the top of everest! even if it was that fast they wouldnt even be flying...

[RowmanSailor]

Score one for Germany! (if it was a German pilot. . . )

[nobbylon]

well calv, I do fly a/c of similar size. I will say that after watching this approach they should have gone around sooner! He started to drift L at approx 50-70 ft, tried to correct by going to the R, destabilised the approach and then ruddered off the drift too early. As a 2nd effect of his L rudder input he got a L wing roll and didn't correct with R wing down, better to rudder off drift as you flare onto the runway, but then you knew that didn't you?

[Eemily101]

hehe. some of us have no idea wha you said. hehe. but nice

[jetpilote]

Eemily, what he said was, the pilot flying F'ed up. And Rowman Sailor, that "German pilot" needs to go back to the simulator to better understand what happens the outside wing when you apply rudder to straighten out the crab. Maybe he should also brush up on the maximum crosswind limitation for the Airbus. Go Germany!

[Eemily101]

oooh. ok. thanks. not the best interpreter and those kind of things. i owe you one.

[calvinxchange]

EExActly!!!! usually the worst error during a NO NO landing with X-wind is to make a complete landing... Ive always said the best WARNING for a pilot to use is common sense that RED FLAG that comes naturally with u... as soon as that RED FLAGS goes UP!!!..... JUST GO -AROUND!!!! and give it another try :)

[nobbylon]

awesome pilot? I think not!

[calvinxchange]

If u r a real pilot u might know why that captain is awsome. No matter how huge a plane can be, wind can tip an airplane easily. If he wasn't a good pilot then the initial result of the landing after scraping the wing tip off would have been with horrible results.

[Marzo2277]

i agree, perfect pull off, crosswind landing is a nightmare...

[mrodrigu]

I hate to repeat this over-used cliche, but: "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one". Having said that, I'd wonder if x-wind limits were observed. They were famously ignored by a Futura crew in Shannon who tore off the front wheel strut in the ensuing landing.

[pixelator30]

Great pilot.

[crphotography]

This is amazing!!! Let's hear it for the pilots.

[dewzeron]

Wow, that looked like a nasty crosswind. Really lucky it didn't turn out worse. At least the Pilots didn't try and stop, and were smart enough to give it another go.

[JackNastyphx]

good example of a bad crosswind landing.....

[1antiracist]

well, it seemed okay. i mean, he was yawing correctly until he reached the runway, at which point he seemed to rudder correctly, but the wind was too strong even that close to the ground. i guess maybe because he was crabbing so severely, that he should have just gone around earlier?

[1antiracist]

well, it seemed like a good landing. i mean the plane seemed to be yawing properly, and then the pilot ruddered at the right moment to align the aircraft with the runway. the wind was just too strong even that low. but perhaps you are correct; given the severity of the crosswind, the pilot should have gone around without attempting to land?

[luv1dem1dogz]

WOAH! That's insane!

[startsfires4321]

Awesome pilot

[xkoderax]

wow, could've ended badly

[OskaRusty]

Holy shit, 130 people on board. Panic stations anyone?