BA jet in near-miss at Heathrow after landing aborted in high winds
A British Airways jet had a near-miss when the pilot was forced to abort a landing attempt at Heathrow airport as it was buffeted by high winds during Storm Corrie.
Footage captured by plane spotters on Monday showed the jet, which had departed from Aberdeen, sway heavily on to its left side as it approached the runway.
The video, shown on Big Jet TV, showed the plane almost toppling on to its side as its tail appeared to make contact with the ground, creating a cloud of what aviation enthusiasts call plane dust.
The pilot managed to steady the jet and pull it up before flying off for another — successful – landing attempt.
In the video, witnesses can be heard gasping in horror as the tail looked to make contact in a “tail strike”. The plane appeared to rock from side to side before leaning heavily on to its left side before pulling clear.
A British Airways spokesperson said of the incident on Monday: “Our pilots are highly trained to manage a range of scenarios, including extreme weather conditions, and our flight crew landed the aircraft safely. Our customers and crew all disembarked as normal.”
Back-to-back storms at the weekend left more than 45,000 homes without electricity across the country.
A nine-year-old boy in Staffordshire and a 60-year-old woman in Aberdeen died after trees were torn down on Saturday as Storm Malik took hold.
Storm Corrie brought winds of 92mph to Stornoway in the Western Isles of Scotland late on Sunday before pushing into the North Sea in the early hours of Monday, leaving behind cold and blustery conditions.
Read more on theguardian.com
