Aeroplanes landing in storm Eunice.

Yep. Nothing would persuade me to board a plane in the weather we’ve seen today and those pilots who have had to brave the conditions deserve our admiration. I’ve seen a few hair raising videos today, including a huge Airbus A380 landing - I think it was at Gatwick. Huge skill and massive responsibility - all those lives.

Absolute hear, hear

I totaly agree with you Serendipity22.
The passengers must have been in awe of the pilot,i know i am.

I live near the highest airport in England, Leeds/Bradford and our local news has me cringing when they report of planes TRYING to land in wild winds..

I bet the pilots have had a few rounds of applause on landing they are amazing. We have had a few scary landings in Madeira.

I commented earlier on the Storms post about my experience 2 years ago when our A380 from Dubai had to land at Birmingham Airport.
We were warned on take off that our flight might be a "bit bumpy" when reaching the UK.
In actual fact, it was bumpy way before then!
The plane circled the airport for 20 to 30 minutes trying to find a suitable moment to attempt a landing, then suddenly, we were over Northampton!
The eventual landing was stomach churning, not helped by the pilot's suggestion that we reread the emergency landing instructions.
Nobody spoke during landing but the pilot earned a round of applause once we were safely down.

That wasn't the end of our problems as we couldn't get off because the walkway couldn't be attached to the plane due to the strong wind. They had to get permission from Emirates as there was a risk of damage to the plane.
It was an interesting experience! ?

fiorentina51

Ohh my life ! That must have been an experience a a half !

The force of nature !

Having admiration for the pilot when watching it on TV and having admiration for the pilot when you're actually on board the aircraft will be world away.

I can thankfully say i haven't had such an experience.

Landing and take off on Madeira is ‘hairy’ at the best of times. It’s weather like this when aircrew really earn their money and deserve that round of applause.

Omg such skills, glad I wasn't on board. .
However we wasted most of the afternoon watching Big Jet TV.
All the landings with the enthusiastic comments as each heavy Jet landed at Heathrow. It was nail biting at times, the guy doing the filming and commentary is a total star. Apparently over 200k people tuned in.

Completely agree serendipity.

We were once flying back from Italy and the pilot came on the intercom to tell us that we were over Paris and it was going to be a little rough coming into Heathrow so all computers would shut down, the staff would cease serving and take their seats and we were asked to remain in our seats with seat belts on. 'You won't be hearing from me again' he then said, 'because, um, we're a little busy up here' so thank you etc etc!

I suppose it wasn't too terrible a landing, though as we flew to about building height, the plane began to rock from side to side like a seesaw with the wings going up and down and it landed with the most terrific bang when the wheels hit the ground. The relief in the plane was audible. It was scary, I don't like flying and this didn't help!

JillyJosie2 ohhhh my life !!! Scary or WHAT !
Yes, i can imagine the bang of the wheels touching tarmac was such an enormous relief....

Passengers were stuck on the plane at Bristol Airport even though the pilot managed to skilfully land. The unload baggage trucks couldn’t get to the plane in the high winds so people were left onboard.

Our pilot was a bit of a character. We all knew about the storm coming over the UK around the time of arrival. His comment about it being "a bit bumpy" was, I think, an attempt to ease our worries.
The bumpy ride started as we flew over Turkey and got worse the closer we got to the UK.
Whilst we stuck on the tarmac once we had landed, he explained why there was a delay in disembarking.
After almost 40minutes and still no sign of us getting off, his next message was, "Well, I've done my bit, I actually got you here!"
I have say, it raised a laugh but boy was I glad to get off that plane!

I certainly won’t fly into Madeira again. I hate flying anyway and only found out afterwards what a difficult place it is for pilots. Well done to all the aircrew.

Thank God my son wasnt on one of those, when he was young he used to announce at the top of his voice 'we are going down' 'it's not safe it's much safer at home' and on and on. What a joy he must have been for the other passengers.

I was once on a plane when the pilot announced that the undercarriage wasn’t descending so they would circle and the carpet on the plane would be removed while the crew tried to watch the undercarriage to see if the system was working as they cranked it down manually.
All items were taken from us and secured including shoes. We were instructed on the brace position and had a rehearsal for landing. Excess fuel was ejected so we had one chance only.
There was a bit of crying and praying and the air hostesses had to bully a few people into following instructions.
As we approached the runway we could see emergency services lined up on either side of us and racing along with us then it was brace positions. The landing gear had engaged but the whole hydraulic system had failed so there was no steering (the pilot had omitted to mention that). We slewed to a halt and remained there until we were towed to the arrivals area.
There wasn’t much in the way of clapping in fact it was rather quiet on board as I suspect we were all in shock.
We couldn’t wait to get off and imagined that everyone had seen the incident but nobody had. It had happened well away from the airport buildings.
Next day there was nothing in the newspapers. It made me wonder just how many emergency landings go unreported to the general public.

Esspee

Ohhhhhhhh myyyyy life !!!!!!!!!

Im going to bypass this topic because we've booked our flight to see my son ( 8 hr flight ) and stupid me is reading all these posts!!

eeeeeeeeeeeek

Just thought !!!!

I started this thread in tye first place !!! Haaaaaaa

The skies above my property are constantly busy as this is the start of a journey over the Atlantic to what would have been to travelers in the days of sailing ships the 'new world'. On sunny days I can see these aircraft but what I miss most although never having observed/(only on a long ago visit to the Farnborough air show) is Concorde.My windows would shake with the boom it made as it picked up speed
What a tragic end to such a wonderful invention.

Storm Eunice at London Heathrow Airport

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPQh1FrbOc

live video from yesterday....heathrow landings and some having to goo round again.....
Think twice before choosing to watch, but some may want to..

It certainly won't stop me flying but very unhelpful for those of us who already have reservations or fears. I watched one of these horrific landings on the news yesterday and could only think of many terrified people inside. I have heard some pilots actually enjoy the challenge. I guess we all have different ideas of entertainment.

You could set your watch by Concorde taking off ! It was always spot on and luckily my parents house was not in the flight path so you could see it flying away. It could be a noisy aircraft but so fast it was soon gone.
They did even worse with the Brabazon and it just went back to Bristol after a short time - I think they dismantled it. We all went outside into the playground to watch it start it’s final flight.

We were returning from a school ski trip to Italy once- to Luton. The conditions were awful, wind and thick fog. The Pilot told us as we were approaching Luton that he just could not land safely- and that we would have to go to Manchester! And then he just went for it, without warning- and landed, at Luton! Only time I'd heard everyone clap as soon as plane stilled.

My DH used to do long distance flights all round the world on business. He experienced a small cockpit fire, a German airforce jet flying over the wing, several lightening strikes in Kansas, an aborted landing because of a plane on the runway at Heathrow, several aborted take-offs, tracers over Afghanistan and a few other minor scares. He has refused to fly since he retired!