High Winds Cause Jet To Almost Crash, Video

Recently, in Hamburg Germany a jet almost crashed when trying to land under extremely high wind conditions. Here is video of that event and let me warn you that it is difficult to watch if you have ever flown on an airplane. All I can say is this, the next time I fly I would would prefer to land in a location where there is not high cross winds when my plane comes in for a landing. I have not flown that much lately, but I know friends that still fly several times per week because of their job. This video from Germany almost makes me want to never fly again unless weather conditions are almost perfect.

About 35 years ago, I remember flying back to Amarillo, Texas on a TWA flight from Kansas City. I had been on a business trip to Chicago and there were no direct flights from Amarillo to Chicago at that time so I had to connect to Chicago in Kansas City. When returning from my business trip, my TWA flight was the last one to arrival late one night in Amarillo and there were only 10 passengers on board. The first part of that flight from Kansas City to Amarillo was a bunch of fun because the flight crew forgot about assigned seating because there was so few passengers.

However, as our small 737 was approaching Amarillo, the captain advised us to fasten our seat beats and prepare for landing. I remember how tired I was as that jet approached the Amarillo airport and I just wanted to get home and go to sleep. Everything about our landing was perfect until the jet finally touched down on the runway. As soon as the jet touched down, I knew something was wrong because the aircraft started pulling to the right and as the pilot tried to bring the jet back to the center of the runway I remember being tossed from side to side in my seat. I was seated on the right side of the jet and I became concerned as the runway lights kept getting closer to my window.

I never found out what happened that night to cause that jet to pull so violently to the right when it landed and frankly I didn't care. After that wild ride I just wanted to get off that plane as fast as possible and head home. After watching this video today of an even worse landing in Hamburg Germany, I image that a few people on that jet aircraft will have memories of that event in their mind for decades as well. While it is safer to fly than it is to drive down a busy freeway, when something goes wrong with a jet aircraft it is a terrifying experience to passengers, indeed.

Read more about Weird Weather:

February Tornadoes Strike, Massive Loss Of Life
Storms/Tornadoes Rock Mississippi River Towns
Terrible Weather Conditions Await Holiday Travelers
More Midwest/Northeast Snow Predicted Tomorrow
Heartland Ice Turns Into Northeast Blizzard

March 03, 2008 Archives