Crosswinds leave pilot struggling to land at Birmingham Airport (video)
This rather scary video shows the moment a pilot attempts to land a plane in heavy crosswinds at Birmingham Airport.
The aircraft can be seen coming in to land at an angle and seemingly gliding over the ground before landing sideways and then straightening up.
This is then followed by a number of other clips of pilots struggling to land in heavy winds uploaded by YouTube user flugsnug. The final clip shows a KLM plane attempting to land on a snowy runway before giving up and taking off into the sky again.
See more scary plane landings here
Dai Whittingham, the Chief Executive of the UK Flight Safety Committee told MailOnline Travel: "High winds in themselves are not dangerous but they can certainly be inconvenient, especially if the wind direction is across the runway.
"All pilots train to land in high crosswind conditions and will have practiced to the aircraft limits in the simulator.
"When any new aircraft is certified to carry passengers it comes with a published crosswind limit which is the maximum that has been demonstrated by a test pilot during the certification process."
According to Flight Training, landing in a crosswind is one of the trickiest things for new pilots to learn. Pilots have to adjust their "approach path, speed, configuration, and technique."
This isn't the first time it's happened at the airport in the Midlands. Flugsnug also captured similar footage at Birmingham in April this year.
On the page flugsnug says: "The undulations in the BHX runway accentuate these floats: if a plane just misses touchdown on the crest of a bump it can glide down the slope on far side like a ski jumper."
Dai Whittingham added: "Both pilots will be monitoring the situation to ensure the wind does not exceed their limits and both will be alert to the possibility that the landing may need to be abandoned.
"The pilots would also remind themselves of the correct techniques and decide on the additional safety factor to be applied to the target approach speed."
Related articles:
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Scary plane landing in Madeira in strong winds
Emirates plane forced to abort landing at Manchester Airport due to windy weather
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