WATCH: Pilots land world's largest passenger plane sideways

Etihad Airways Airbus A380 is pictured during severe crosswind landing at London’s Heathrow Airport. Picture: Reuters

Etihad Airways Airbus A380 is pictured during severe crosswind landing at London’s Heathrow Airport. Picture: Reuters

Published Feb 18, 2020

Share

Storm Dennis has been causing havoc in the UK. The storm is believed to have caused the worst winter floods in recent times,  The Guardian reported.

The storm has affected huge parts of Britain, from the Scottish Highlands to the Cornish coast and large parts of Wales and Northern Ireland. And it seems it's caused massive cross winds at Heathrow Airport. A few days ago, footage was released showing an Etihad plane landing sideways at Heathrow.

The Etihad Airbus A380 can be seen hovering metres above the tarmac as it attempted to touchdown on Saturday in the storm. According to  Sky News, gusts of up to 50mph were recorded at London's main airport as the fourth named storm of the season hit just days after Storm Ciara.

%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/StormDennis?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StormDennishere: https://t.co/CmFeiRKwiO pic.twitter.com/XEkRQfPGXd

— Sky News (@SkyNews)

The extraordinary thing about the landing is that the pilots managed to land with one attempt, directing the 573kg plane across the runway to carry out a "crab" landing - a highly skilled manoeuvre where pilots fly the plane into the wind, perpendicular to the runway as they land.

The video looks like something out of a movie, showing the landing gear's wheels eventually touching down and pointing across the runway instead of forward.

Etihad has confirmed the plane had flown from Abu Dhabi to London.

Related Topics: