Videos pop up time to time of passenger jets landing in crosswinds. It’s not pretty and looks fiercely uncomfortable, but ultimately, it never looks like they’re not going to stick the landing. That’s not what happened here.
This clip shows an Airbus A380, the largest passenger jet currently in service, touching down during a storm in Dusseldorf. Things look OK as the plane approaches the runway, but it’s what happens after the wheels touch tarmac that would make me poop myself.
It comes from the Cargospotter YouTube channel, a good source of airline videos. The videographer is experienced, which makes his description all the more meaningful:
I have filmed a few thousand crosswind landings at several airports in Europe within the past years, but this Airbus A380 crosswind landing was extremely hard and extraordinary.
At first it looked like a pretty normal crosswind approach but after touchdown the pilots tried to align with the runway which looked pretty incredible. I have never seen such a tremendous reaction of an airplane after a touchdown. You can see that the pilots tried to align with the runway by using the tail rudder and luckily it worked out.
This video shows the incredible skills of the pilots. Even after an unexpected wind gust after touchdown they managed to re-align with the runway. Incredible job by the pilots !! Watching an Airbus 380 is always interesting and a pleasure to watch. I would really like to know what the passengers thought during the arrival today at Düsseldorf.
