Hair-raising video shows massive A380 jet make ‘crab’ landing at Heathrow during storm
- The two-tiered plane can be seen fighting the winds, almost at a 90-degree angle to the runway, before finally touching down
A video shows the moment a two-tiered Airbus A380 was forced to land sideways at London Heathrow Airport as high winds pummelled the UK.
The Etihad aircraft used the “crosswind” or “crab” landing tactic during its arrival from Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Sky News reported.
The aircraft is the world’s largest passenger plane. It is typically flown by two pilots, according to Sky News.
Hundreds of flights into and out of the UK were cancelled because of high winds from Storm Dennis, which struck the UK over the weekend. The UK-based easyJet alone cancelled more than 230 flights on Saturday, the newspaper Metro reported.
This kind of landing is typically attempted in a crosswind – when high winds are blowing across runways – and pilots of incoming aircraft have to face their planes into the prevailing wind as a means of stabilising the plane before landing.