This past weekend Hurricane Emma has been blowing across much of central Europe.

News link: High winds kill eight and cut power.


And in Hamburg an A320 passenger aircraft very nearly crashed while attempting to land in the strong crosswind.

See the amazing video on LiveLeak: A320 crosswind approach and abort

Click to view attachment

Oh wow! Crosswinds are deadly! The pilots were skillfull but everyone was damn lucky that the wing did not touch the ground!

Damn, that looks scary. More than one in that plane must have needed to change underwear afterwards.

Scary indeed.

When they used the rudder to align the fuselage with the runway according to the video they did not apply enough aileron to lower the right wing. This caused to right wing to produce more lift than the left wing leading to the left wing tip almost hitting the runway.

They made a good decision to go-around.

Damn lucky - you bet.

On an A320 the pilot probably never even touched the stick. He's only there to make the passengers feel comfortable and to polish the little buttons.

Photo. Apparently there is damage to the wing...

Great shot.

A320 pilot polishing buttons.

scary stuff !!!

yikes - scary stuff. Glad I wasn't in the plane, and also glad that they were able to get everyone off safely.

That landing looked mega scary...I would have definitely cacked my pants!!

When the weather is gusty like this weekend a pilot would only use the Autopilot to fly the approach and then switch to manual on short final for landing. Crosswind limitations for Autopilot landings are more restrictive than manual. For example: The Operations manual will allow manual landings with up to 30 knots direct crosswind but only 15 knots for an Autopilot autoland approach.

We all like to think modern airplane computers are superior to humans, but when the weather is gusty with high winds only a human will do. The computer cannot anticipate gusts and react fast enough; if a gust exceeds the operating parameter of the autopilot then it (The computer) doesn't decide to go-around, it usually just disengages the autopilot.

When winds are gusty pilots are taught to carry extra speed on final with engines spooled up (in case an go-around is required) and to make a firm (hard) landing. The computer will fly on speed and go for it's normal programmed smooth touchdown, which could be disastrous in these weather conditions.

holy crap! i'd like to shake that pilots hand.

EDIT: never heard of liveleak before. thanks for the tip

The curious thing is that Hamburg (in contrast to most German airports) has crossed runways almost at 90 degrees to each other. In normal ops they like to use one direction for T/O & the other RWY for landing but in case of really strong winds they will use one for both. Hence side wind should be from 45 degs at the worst...

Unfortunately the DFS website seems to be down so I cant see what RWYs were in use yesterday & today.

I think it was runway 23. This vid says it was recorded at 23


and it looks like almost the same spot.

One forum reports that it was flight LH044, Munich to Hamburg.

Glad I wasn't on it.

Orkanböe erfasst Flugzeug - Beinahe-Crash in Hamburg

Herr Bumpdings?! You couldn't make it up.

I salute to the pilot (I think, maybe calling off would have been better), but I dont get why he was directed to 23 when 33 would have given him much better head wind?!?! I guess that one of the reasons lufthansa takes higher prices

I've taken a look at the approaches & departures to & from Hamburg airport yesterday in the STANLY_Track application.

It showed that between 9am & midday all departures were from RWY 23 and between midday & 2pm they were evenly distributed
between RWYs 23 & 33.

Between 9am & midday all approached were to RWY 23 & two go-arounds can be seen.
Between midday & 2pm still all landings were on RWY 23 with a single one on RWY 33.
Between 2pm & 5pm all landings were on RWY 33 (with one go-around).

AFAIK the runways to be used are decided by the tower - Hamburg tower in this case. Generally they avoid using RWY 33 for landing as
the approach is then over the centre of Hamburg (noise) & its used only during strong winds or if the cross-RWY is closed. However, I
have observed RWY33 in use for landing in far less windy conditions than yesterday...

When it is windy like yesterday it's up to the pilots to decide whether the runway assigned by tower is acceptable.

Does anyone know if the flight diverted after the go-around or did they come around for another try?

I would have taken a few turns in holding after that to "Discuss my options", fuel permitting.

You could and I did!

I believe I have found the single track - climbed straight ahead to 4000ft, did a left circuit and landed on RWY 23 (the original one).

Thanks.

Oh wow, they were really lucky.

Wow, scary stuff.

LiveLeak wouldn't work for me for some reason, but they've got it up on YouTube now as well. Would a skilled pilot have been daft enough to try and land at a 20 degree angle of attack? Surely there's times when you've just got to say, "Fuck that!" and move on.

Wow somebody had to go stinky after that one!

I've just followed STB's pic link and found this:

Click to view attachment

The Hamburg Bounce doesn't seem quite as bad now.

Another pic of today's incident (are the entire perimeters of airports now protected by a solid wall of anoraks?)

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Obviously, "Yes".

Click to view attachment

Or maybe just experienced anoraks who know they're going to get something juicy on a day like today.

The following post on that page claims that photo is faked.

The above photos and more are originally from the hamburg-airport-friends-forum.

The photographer writes:

Well, I've licked my monitor and to be totally honest with you, I can't tell. Can you?

Do photoshopped piccies taste different?

The higher contrast of colours on the plane compared to the background makes it look fake, and there's just something about the angle of the plane that's not quite right. Can't quite put my finger on it.

Oh yawn. The constant cries of "it's Photoshopped!" whenever a slightly unusual picture appears are as dull as the troll accusations whenever someone posts something slightly out of the ordinary. The video and Sin's photos prove it's a genuine photo. That website is for plane anoraks; they have no reason to start faking photos.

According to a number of posts on airliners.net, it was the last flight to land on Runway 23 before they switched to 33, but it was the pilot's decision to use runway 23.

===
EDDH 011220Z 29028G48KT 9000 -SHRA FEW011 BKN014 07/05 Q0984 TEMPO 29035G55KT 4000 SHRA BKN008

Wind 290° 28 knots, gusts 48 knots, temporary 290/35/55.
===

The pic of the Air France plane Sin posted A320 nearly crashes during storm "Emma" in Hamburg is a fake.

If that is the weather forecast at the time the tapes from the tower better state the Tower reported winds less than gusts up to 55 kts.

I don't know about the A320, but I've flown 8 different jets and all of them had restrictions for max headwind of 50 kts straight down the runway - no crosswind. Crosswind max is usually around 20 - 30 kts.

According to http://e-flight.com/a320.htm the max demonstrated crosswinds for an A320 is

===
X wind: max demonstrated for takeoff 29 Kt
X wind: max demonstrated for landing 33 Kt
X wind: max demonstrated gust 38 Kt
===

Still, great job by the pilots to recover the situation. Had they have touched the left landing gear into the soft grass/mud, and not decided to go around, this could have been a very differerent story.

BTW, it is on the www.bild.de now. I am sure the HAM controllers will have some explaining to do.

Agree totally. And yet there are many fakes (both good and bad) out there, so some healthy skepticism is required.


Agreed, but I think you missed the point there - we were discussing the Air France picture, which the airliners.net post says has been discussed and is fake. Presumably they have a thread on it, but I'm not about to go and find it.

My simple answer on the AF pic: Who am I to know?

Air France shot does look dead moody.

Just looks like a usual day at Wellington Airport...

@Matt T: Ah, fair enough, I thought you were referring to the Lufthansa photo.

Here's the same video on YouTube, the other site is blocked by my employer's fun filter.

An investigation is now underway by the german federal aviation office. Guess some other people think it was a little on the wildside landing with those crosswinds

I was think about this the whole day. I've no idea how many flights I've 'passengered', maybe over a thousand... maybe 12 if you count staying awake long enough for take-off. Whatever, it's a lot, bordering on too many. I've been in bad landings. I've seen bits fall off the aircraft. Not nice when you're gazing out into the blue getting a little Vit D above the clouds when the engine turns from a distinctive shade of dark blue to a shade of, "FUCKIN' 'ELL! A BIG BIT OF THE ENGINE JUST BLEW OFF!"

Anyway, crabbing, either its what a plane does by pointing into the wind a bit but flying diagonally, or its what the officers do with the stewardesses on a lay-over evening. Defo one or the other. Momentum would dictate that so long as you can get a rear-ish wheel onto the deck first (avoiding the nosewheel touching first for obvious ARGHHH! reasons), the general momentum-trajectory of the aircraft should snap her into line with the runway irrespective of the direction you're facing moments before. Or... if you can see the dotted white line down the centre of the runway while looking out of your passenger window, start hummin' The Flower Duet anyway to pass the time. Beats screamin'.