Seen the video of the plane scrape a wing in Hamburg?

[Dan Gould]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/03...lane/index.html

I've never seen a plane slammed this much so close to the runway. Great job by the pilots to abort and go around.

[Chuck Nessa]

Yeah, I saw this on MSNBC this morning and about crapped my pants. Can't imagine the adrenalin flowing in the cockpit.

[AndrewHill]

Thanks for posting. Can you imagine the panic of the passengers? Hats off to the pilots for finally landing the plane safely.

[Dan Gould]

Thanks for posting. Can you imagine the panic of the passengers? Hats off to the pilots for finally landing the plane safely.

I figured you'd enjoy it, HG.

If they ever produce Seconds From Near Disaster, this will be the pilot episode, no pun intended.

[Shawn]

Crazy. I'm actually surprised he got that close to the ground considering how badly the wind had blown off the approach angle. But a great job of recovery! Good thing they make those wings sturdy....

[Dan Gould]

Crazy. I'm actually surprised he got that close to the ground considering how badly the wind had blown off the approach angle. But a great job of recovery! Good thing they make those wings sturdy....

Yeah, I was thinking when he reached that extreme angle, its time to declare he's aborting the landing and hit that throttle and get the hell out of there.

[Soulstation1]

that's another reason why my my ass don't like to fly

[jesus marion joseph]

Just saw the video on TV. Incredible save. I bet there w3as more than adrenalibe flowing through that cockpit, though!

[Dan Gould]

Just saw the video on TV. Incredible save. I bet there w3as more than adrenalibe flowing through that cockpit, though!

Yeah, they were probably repeating your screen name.

[BeBop]

Damn, Dan. I'm flying 350,000 miles a year. Don't make me watch this stuff. Four times.

[Free For All]

Damn, Dan. I'm flying 350,000 miles a year. Don't make me watch this stuff. Four times.

Just a little minor scuffage. Still playable.

[sidewinder]

Had a similar incident - but much less severe thankfully - with Lufthansa some years ago on a short flight back from Germany to Heathrow in an Airbus A320. At about the 100ft decision height and looking out of the window the wings were swaying thinking 'no way are we going to land' and the pilot fortunately pulled nose up with full throttle for a 'go around'. After we climbed up the pilot, in reassuring Teutonic accent said 'not to worry, we have a little bit more turbulence than expected and there are lots of options available for diversions'. At least one person near me threw up. No need to divert though - after a circuit through the Midlands on next landing attempt we were straight in with a near-perfect landing.

The flight from Frankfurt had been delayed over an hour with departure due to bad storm conditions over the UK.

I've never been the happiest of flying passengers but - when you think about it - it's amazingly safe considering the number of passenger miles covered and the rarity of incidents. Much safer than getting in the car.

Edited March 4, 2008 by sidewinder

[Dan Gould]

And yet people who don't like to fly think nothing of the higher accident rate and jump in their cars for a cross-country drive all of the time.

[BeBop]

Damn, Dan. I'm flying 350,000 miles a year. Don't make me watch this stuff. Four times.

Just a little minor scuffage. Still playable.

[clifford_thornton]

Thanks for posting. Can you imagine the panic of the passengers? Hats off to the pilots for finally landing the plane safely.

I figured you'd enjoy it, HG.

If they ever produce Seconds From Near Disaster, this will be the pilot episode, no pun intended.

Yeah, that was a pretty amazing save. I would NOT want to have been in that plane, even though it all turned out fine.

And Dan, I have taken to watching reruns of that show, fear-of-flying be damned!

[Dan Gould]

Thanks for posting. Can you imagine the panic of the passengers? Hats off to the pilots for finally landing the plane safely.

I figured you'd enjoy it, HG.

If they ever produce Seconds From Near Disaster, this will be the pilot episode, no pun intended.

Yeah, that was a pretty amazing save. I would NOT want to have been in that plane, even though it all turned out fine.

And Dan, I have taken to watching reruns of that show, fear-of-flying be damned!

I'm actually watching Air Emergency right now, the episode is about the Philippine Air flight in which a terrorist brought the bomb parts on board in pieces, put it together in the bathroom and left it under a seat in First Class and departed the plane at its intermediate stop before heading on to Tokyo. It wasn't powerful enough to bring the plane down and iirc, the only fatality was the poor guy fated to sit in that seat.

[AndrewHill]

Thanks for posting. Can you imagine the panic of the passengers? Hats off to the pilots for finally landing the plane safely.

I figured you'd enjoy it, HG.

If they ever produce Seconds From Near Disaster, this will be the pilot episode, no pun intended.

Yeah, that was a pretty amazing save. I would NOT want to have been in that plane, even though it all turned out fine.

And Dan, I have taken to watching reruns of that show, fear-of-flying be damned!

I'm actually watching Air Emergency right now, the episode is about the Philippine Air flight in which a terrorist brought the bomb parts on board in pieces, put it together in the bathroom and left it under a seat in First Class and departed the plane at its intermediate stop before heading on to Tokyo. It wasn't powerful enough to bring the plane down and iirc, the only fatality was the poor guy fated to sit in that seat.

I remember seeing this episode a long time ago. IIRC, wasn't this the episode where it turned out that the terrorist was actually Ramsey Yusef? I could be mistaken though.

[Dan Gould]

Yes it was, and his screw-up in the Phillipines (starting a fire in their bomb-making at a hotel) ruined their plan to bomb 12 US passenger jets in the same way. Despite the annoyances, its nice to know that you can't bring a big old bottle of nitroglycerin on a plane anymore, like this guy did.

[Claude]

It was now revealed that the A320 in Hamburg had been flown by the 24 year old co-pilot during the landing which almost failed. The much more experienced pilot only took over in time to make the rescue manoeuver and then the second landing.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/german...,539373,00.html

Edit: link added

Edited March 5, 2008 by Claude

[Dan Gould]

It was now revealed that the A320 in Hamburg had been flown by the 24 year old co-pilot during the landing which almost failed. The much more experienced pilot only took over in time to make the rescue manoeuver and then the second landing.

Interesting. But would the plane have landed safely on the first attempt if the experienced pilot were at the controls? I would tend to doubt it but who knows. I'd be curious to know exactly when he took over - when the plane took the extreme angle relative to the runway, or after?

[AndrewHill]

That's interesting. I don't know if that was exactly a wise decision to hand the controls over to an inexperienced pilot and let him land when winds were that strong. That could've been a disasterous outcome that could've ended in a real tragedy.

edit to add that based on the 'much more experienced' pilot part, I'm assuming that that means the younger pilot is less experienced.

Edited March 5, 2008 by Holy Ghost