Everyone Clap for This Pilot Landing a Plane Sideways in Storm Winds
Planes are scary. No matter how many stats you hear about the danger of cars in comparison, there's something about sitting in a metal box that's propelled through the sky by pure gumption (and, uh, science?) that makes you feel a little uneasy.
That unrest isn't helped when your plane is coming at the runway sideways, like in the video above. But you can feel comforted knowing that, in this clip at least, the pilot absolutely nails the landing in a TUI Boeing 757-200 at the Bristol Airport in the UK. CNN reports that this smooth operator's name is Captain Brenda Riepsaame Wassink, and the descent took place last week in the midst of Storm Callum, which made for less than ideal flying conditions.
This technique is apparently called crabbing, but you might know it by its more colloquial name, holy shit, how did you do that. The idea is to angle the plane's nose into the wind until just before touching down, then turn at the last second. Pilots learn the technique pretty early on in their training, but the higher the wind speed, the more difficult it is. The crosswinds on this day were up to 40 knots, according to New China TV, so it's safe to assume it wasn't easy. You can even see the plane's wings flexing up and down as the wind hits them.
It's unclear at this time whether the pilot said skrrt aloud when she landed, but we can only hope so.
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