Flybe plane struggles to land at Birmingham Airport in strong crosswinds

A Flybe flight arriving into Birmingham Airport last week ended up with a bit of a rocky landing due to strong cross winds.

As it lands, YouTube user FlugSnug's footage shows the aircraft veering severely towards the right hand side of the runway while still in the air.
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The unstable plane approaches the ground while appearing to bounce a little on the air above the runway. It then begins to taxi along the runway while swerving dramatically to the right.

The video has had more than 7,000 views on YouTube where the caption reads: "Flight from Dusseldorf to Birmingham 7th November 2015. The pilot reported the steering failure to ATC at the very end of this video sequence, and requested a tug vehicle to tow the plane to the terminal. A little later, control of steering was reported as regained, and the plane taxied off normally. There was a moderate crosswind on this day which may have contributed to the incident."

On landing, the steering was temporarily affected by a strong cross wind gust from the right, as seen by the 'crabbing' action and sharp veer to the right of the aircraft. The crew quickly managed this accordingly.

Captain Chris Coney-Jones, Flybe's General Manager Fleets, comments: "The safety of our passengers and crew are our obvious number one priority. Taking off and landing in strong and gusty winds is all in a day's work. Our pilots are highly trained and have the necessary skills, training and procedures required to assess and make the required operational decisions to conduct a safe flight in such adverse weather conditions."


This isn't the first time pilots have struggled to land at Birmingham Airport. In July we reported on another one of FlugSnug's videos which showed pilots struggling to land during severe crosswinds at the airport.

Flight Training says landing a plane in a crosswind is one of the hardest techniques for new pilots to learn because they need to adjust their "approach path, speed, configuration, and technique."

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