Scary moment for a Lufthansa pilot and passengers.

[DRice]

Plane scrapes wing during landing in Germany - CNN.com

I'm guessing some people needed to buy some new clothes.

Great save by the pilot, assuming he wasn't part of the problem.

[VegasHockey]

Oh, and I thought this was going to say that Henry Hill was a passenger on a Lufthansa flight. That'd be just awesome. Also, I'm well aware that he technically had nothing to do with the Lufthansa heist but he's the only person that's still alive that was even remotely involved.

[mitchrock]

That's scary stuff. I blame FBJ! He put a hex on AirBus.

[FlyBoeingJets]

Buncha soft Euros...

[Mr. Teeny]

I would have probably needed some new pants after that.

That whole thing just looked scary... I don't want my airplane shifting that much on approach, fighting the cross wind so hard that the body has to be at a 25 deg angle to the runway. It just doesn't seem fun to me.

I wonder if it was just as windy on their second approach or if it died down a little bit for them.

[FlyBoeingJets]

Originally Posted by Mr. Teeny

I would have probably needed some new pants after that.

That whole thing just looked scary... I don't want my airplane shifting that much on approach, fighting the cross wind so hard that the body has to be at a 25 deg angle to the runway. It just doesn't seem fun to me.

I wonder if it was just as windy on their second approach or if it died down a little bit for them.

The problem with the airbus in crosswind situations (IMO) is that the pilots have absolutely no tactile feedback from the controls that tells them what's going on with the airplane. I got the opportunity to play around with an A-320 sim about ten years ago, and the thing was a major handful with crosswinds in excess of 30 knots. Then again, I wasn't to the experience level of flying passenger jets back then as I am today.

To land a jet in crosswind situations, you typically approach the runway in a crab (i.e. nose pointed into the wind so your direction of travel is along the centerline of the runway even though the aircraft's longitudinal axis isn't). When you get down to about thirty feet or so, the technique is to simultaneously align the aircraft's longitudinal axis with the runway and direction of travel by using the rudder pedals, while rolling in aileron (dipping the upwind wing) just enough so the plane doesn't drift with the wind from the centerline of the runway. If it's done right, you land on the upwind main wheels and roll the rest of the aileron into the wind gradually as you slow down so that upwind wheel doesn't come off the ground. After the nosewheel is down, it's all about the rudder again as you use it to control your direction of travel (it's interconnected to the nosewheel steering, typically).

What those guys did was rough looking, to say the least. But my guess is that it wasn't beyond the demonstrated crosswind limitations of the airplane. If the winds were a constant velocity, then it was a poorly flown approach. But winds are rarely at constant velocity that low to the ground, given the buildings and hills and **** that wind has to flow around. So I'd imagine that it was a combination of dicey winds and pilot technique that led to that fun ride.

Then again, I wasn't there, so I truly have no idea.

From my understanding, they went around (an excellent choice, given the situation) and landed on a runway that was more aligned with the wind.