Horror-Landing at Hamburg Airport

Marcus · 03-03-08, 03:08 AM

Last Saturday because of storm "Emma" a Lufthansa jet had a close call with disaster,
left wing touched the runway:

LiveLeak.com - Hamburg - A320 nearly crashed during crosswind approach

I LOVE GT40- Paolo · 03-03-08, 04:59 AM

skill or just the Lord there?

Marcus · 03-03-08, 06:46 AM

Think the wing touching the runway (winglet damaged) was the lord,
the straightening-up-and-go was skill.

Big-Foot · 03-03-08, 07:11 AM

A little bird tells me that he was beyond the cross-wind component of that craft and that completing the landing would have resulted in a crash...

Marcus · 03-03-08, 09:38 AM

The pilot is said to have delivered the understatement of the year by saying that the landing turned out to be "rather demanding"...

Ant · 03-03-08, 10:04 AM

Marcus,

You beat me to it. The BBC newscaster said the 'plane recieved slight damage', I would image a few ripped off armrests and a complete upholstery deep clean does count as slight damage. Did it land at that airport again or somewhere calmer?

Marcus · 03-03-08, 10:44 AM

The crew made a second approach and things went O.K.

Marcus · 03-03-08, 01:02 PM

Latest news: Crew is under investgation as experts judging by the footage regard the final approach as too unstable stating that the 39-year old flight captain and his 24-year old (female, for what´s its worth) copilot should have aborted their final approach and instead should have evaded to Bremen airport, something other aircrews (Emirates) did.

When leaving the aircraft witnesses described the copilot as being in some state of shock.

I LOVE GT40- Paolo · 03-03-08, 04:22 PM

when something as this happens,in italy we use to say "accendi un cero grande ai santi..".
Think if not Lord helping..we will have a new episode in NG plane crash serie..

Pete. · 03-03-08, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marcus

Latest news: the 39-year old flight captain and his 24-year old (female, for what´s its worth) copilot should have aborted their final approach and instead should have evaded to Bremen airport, something other aircrews (Emirates) did.

When leaving the aircraft witnesses described the copilot as being in some state of shock.

Someone has got to tell those female copilots that it is not a good idea to be giving the Captain a BJ on short final with an excessive cross wind component. No wonder the poor bloke nearly put it in.

J. Salmon · 03-03-08, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete

Someone has got to tell those female copilots that it is not a good idea to be giving the Captain a BJ on short final with an excessive cross wind component. No wonder the poor bloke nearly put it in.

In all seriousness, men are men, especailly pilots (in general). You cannot convince me that having a female copilot did not add some component of "watch this."

Jack · 03-03-08, 07:13 PM

Someone has got to tell those female copilots that it is not a good idea to be giving the Captain a BJ on short final with an excessive cross wind component. No wonder the poor bloke nearly put it in.

I always look forward to reading your posts.

In all seriousness, men are men, especailly pilots (in general). You cannot convince me that having a female copilot did not add some component of "watch this."

I do agree there must have been a little excessive testosterone level there to be questioned.

David Morton · 03-03-08, 07:41 PM

Guys - I think you are making some rather sexist and totally wrong assumptions. If the wind was within the demonstrated limits and remained so all the way down to touch down, he was within his rights to attempt the approach.
The gender of the Baldrick (Co-pilot or First Officer) would have no bearing on the matter.
Most company's have a slightly lower cross wind limit for the First Officer. What often happens after such an event and the subsequent inquiry is that the Airfield's Anemometer gets upgraded and better located to avoid a recurrance. Anemometers are not always located abeam touch down areas which is where they should be.
He was indeed very lucky. I think there might have been a double wing scrape, or at least it came very close on the right side as well.
Everyone survived, a couple of Ailerons and outer fairings didn't.
Better luck next time.
(And maybe he should read up on the secondary effects of rudder. On the B747 there would invariably be crossed control in executing such a flare, but its unecessary to do it because with a Boeing you can land without taking the drift off - it's very easy to scrape a pod on the 747).

Pete. · 03-03-08, 08:04 PM

That first sentence was a little P.C. David

Pat Buckley · 03-03-08, 08:13 PM

Totally agree with you again, Pete.

Jac Mac · 03-03-08, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Morton

(And maybe he should read up on the secondary effects of rudder. On the B747 there would invariably be crossed control in executing such a flare, but its unecessary to do it because with a Boeing you can land without taking the drift off - it's very easy to scrape a pod on the 747).

I wish Traumahawks & Cubs had that feature when I was trying to learn to fly! Closest thing to it that I had encountered prior was on an old TD6 that was intent on going downhill while I was wanting to get back to the top.

Jac Mac

David Morton · 03-03-08, 09:01 PM

Sorry about that Pete. I thought it needed to be said. In reality, these machines are designed to be flown single handed and everything can be done without a second person being present. I remember starting out on almost my first trip after training on a 737 and this very senior ex wartime bomber command grumpy old skipper told me my role in the flight deck was the sexual advisor. When he wanted my f----ng advice, he would f----ng well ask for it, so until then strap my licence in the right hand seat get out of his cockpit , and get checked by the hostie out on making decent tea. He operated all the way to Tenerife and back single handed.(There were no co-pilots in the Lancaster) I guess, in fact I know, he would have just laughed at the antics of this Airbus crosswind landing.

Maybe 30 years later I was just as grumpy but I sincerely hope not.
I think a dog should be part of the complement on the flight deck. The dog to operate the aeroplane and one pilot to feed the dog.

Cliff Beer · 03-03-08, 10:22 PM

That was one HELL of a cross wind - had to have been 30+ knots across the runway. The plane was a good 10-15 degrees off to maintain it's line - squaring it up on touchdown is no small feat. The pilot made a good decision to get back on the power and look for an alternative.

Yikes, I'd have to change my shorts after that one.

Freewheel · 03-03-08, 10:59 PM

A fearsome crosswind for sure, the peak gust far in excess of the crosswind limit.

For those unfamiliar with gas turbines, there's always a certain lag between burying the throttles into the wall and feeling a major effect. Modern turbines don't have much lag, but there's always some. Just goes to show "when in doubt power out" has more than one use.

I was always told that in the future, airliners would operate fully automatically, with a pilot and a dog in the cockpit. The pilot was there to feed the dog and the dog was there to bite the pilot if he tried to touch anything.