Video: Gut Rumpus-Inducing Airbus A330 Aborted Landing
Published by Joel March 4th, 2008 in Jobs, Vehicles. Share ThisI am captivated and horrified by aircraft in the first place, so this video of Lufthansa Flight LH44 from Munich landing in Hamburg—full, I’m told, of technology folk going to the big CeBIT gadget convention—is the sort of thing that will be running on a loop in my mind as I take a flight this weekend to Austin.
After they abort—and there’s a wing touching the ground at one point, I believe—they came around to Hamburg’s other runway which is perpendicular to the first and touched down safely.
John Biggs of Crunchgear is at CeBIT and told me that he met one guy who had been on that flight sitting in a booth on the busy show floor, sort of quietly watching the crowds go by, too sullen to interact.
YouTube commenters are the dregs of internet feedback, but there are some quotes from some folks in the video’s comments that seem at least possibly true:
He should never had tried to land in those conditions!!
Very dangerous guy .I am an airbus( a330) pilot myself :the go around should have been done much earlier: luckily the main gear did not touch the runway otherwise Speedbrakes would have extend automatically and go around would have been deadly. Very bad approach very late wind correction:xxxtremely dangerous!!
For all those with comments like “good save”, and “excellent job by the pilot”, save it. They were lucky to have extracted themselves from a precarious situation which they alone are responsible for getting into. Also, a 30 knot crosswind and no rudder? WTF?
Klar, dass er die Situation trotzdem noch gerettet hat zeigt, dass die Piloten der Lufthansa über hervorragende Fähigkeiten verfügen - keine Frage. Ich finde nur, dass man den Landeversuch schon viel früher hätte abbrechen müssen. Gott sei Dank ging alles gut.
(I don’t actually speak German so I just cut-and-pasted that one in because I thought it looked pretty.)
Phillip Greenspun’s a formerly famous programmer and now pilot that wrote a post that matches well with a lot of these comments.
Great…more stuff to scare the poop out of me every time I fly.
“Klar, dass er die Situation trotzdem noch gerettet hat zeigt, dass die Piloten der Lufthansa über hervorragende Fähigkeiten verfügen - keine Frage. Ich finde nur, dass man den Landeversuch schon viel früher hätte abbrechen müssen. Gott sei Dank ging alles gut.”
Translation: “The pilot saving the day shows how excellent the Lufthansa pilots’ skills are — no doubt. I think, though, they should’ve aborted the landing much earlier. Thank god everything’s alright.”
I actually am looking forward flying to NYC next week. It’s safer than driving to the airport after all.
I hate to bug you again with a correction but that’s an A320 and not an A330.
yes, just a little typo.
but it makes for a huge difference.
Lev,
You need to tell me next time you are coming to Austin.
Had an aborted landing myself on an A320 flight yesterday. Sudden strong headwind, nor crosswind, so I guess it didn’t look as bad as this. Plane was coming in straight as an arrow and descent rate seemed normal - to me. Pilot said my plane was reached within 15 feet off the ground and the limit is 10. What do they do if they drop below 10 while under full power - kill the engines?
Anyhow, this was the 2nd time this has happened to me and I had thought of it as, if not “routine”, a practiced, generally safe procedure. Obviously there’s a fine line somewhere