A live air broadcaster has been left terrified by a professional pilot arriving at London Heathrow amid the powerful winds of Storm Darragh.
YouTuber Big Jet TV was filming various planes approaching Heathrow on Saturday while strong winds from Storm Darragh reached speeds of up to 96mph across the country.
At Heathrow, gusts were reaching 38mph at around 4pm on Saturday, according to the Met Office.
Several of the planes caught on camera had to try to land several times, by circling and heading back onto the tarmac, while others struggled to land properly and rolled off the runway.
However, before four o'clock in the afternoon, the Malaysia Airlines plane approached the airport. The announcer exclaimed that the plane was “high” before it flew over the runway.
“That's a lot of old speed out there, man, it's crazy,” said the announcer. “I thought you were leaving.”
The plane then descended and appeared to come down at an angle to the side of the runway rather than forward, but once it landed it almost flipped forward onto the tarmac.
“Wow, easy, blimey O'Reilly,” said the announcer. “Wow, big turn there.”
“Is that a speed bump, maybe? That was the biggest crab in the world.”
The streamer seems to refer to the way of stabbing, or the so-called crossing down the crosswind, when the pilot arrives at the runway at an angle, pointing slightly into the wind, to resist the high wind that may affect its path, according to the Pilot Institute. .
The skill is notoriously difficult to master, as flying towards the runway but not pointing to it feels unnatural.
“A wonderful person,” concluded the broadcaster. “What a great shot.”
The plane appeared to land at an angle (Big Jet TV/YouTube)
Another landing was not as smooth as Malaysia Airlines approach. Big Jet TV filmed another plane struggling to land, the plane fighting the wind as it swerved from side to side, before landing on the runway.
British Airways canceled more than 100 short-haul domestic and European flights from London Heathrow, including many flights to and from Paris, Edinburgh, Jersey, Milan, Nice and Vienna, while transatlantic flights from the US were diverted to Brussels.
Storm Darragh hit the UK on Saturday, with flights and trains canceled and hundreds of thousands of homes left without power.
Winds of up to 96mph lashed the country and caused major travel disruptions and resulted in the loss of two lives.
A Met Office red warning for parts of Wales and south-west England came into force on Saturday morning at 1am, with strong winds prompting a government “danger to life” warning issued to three million people.
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