Behemoth: The enormous Etihad A380 landed at Heathrow, in spite of harsh conditions. Photo / Screenshot, SDTV
Behemoth: The enormous Etihad A380 landed at Heathrow, in spite of harsh conditions. Photo / Screenshot, SDTV
Hundreds of flights have been blown off schedule in the UK, with delays and diversions causing travel chaos during Storm Dennis.
146kmph winds have cause around 170 flights to be cancelled on Sunday morning.
However, the pilots of an Etihad Airbus A380 pulled of an impressive landing in cross winds into London Heathrow. Flying their superjumbo jet almost at right-angles to the runway the flight was videoed by a plane spotter and the clip has gone viral online.
Buffeted by crosswinds, the plane makes a terrifying landing that can only convey a fraction of how nervous passengers must have been during the approach.
On Sunday a spokesperson for Etihad praised the skill of the pilot in landing the massive four-engine aircraft in a landing they said would have been impossible just 20 years ago:
"Weather conditions at London Heathrow during the recent storm event, Dennis, caused some very challenging conditions for all pilots," an Etihad spokesman told The Sun online.
"A combination of very sophisticated aircraft technologies and pilot training today allow aircraft to operate in conditions that they couldn't 20 years ago."
This is called a crosswind landing. Pilots practice this from flight school onwards. Just never seen it done on a behemoth like an A380. Much respect to the folks in the cockpit here. https://t.co/wblPoRhR6i
Pilot Neil Patel gave kudos to the flight crew for their crosswind landing via Twitter, saying he had "never seen it done on a behemoth like an A380. Much respect to the folks in the cockpit here."
However, not every plane managed to find its way back to earth.
Planes across the UK were at the mercy of the elements with some bouncing off the runway and opting for a fly around.
Virgin cancelled four long-haul planes. Photo / Supplied, Twitter
EasyJet cancelled 118 flights over the day, with BA grounding 50 flights. Four long-haul flights between the UK to Boston and Hong Kong were cancelled, after Virgin Airlines made the decision not to fly.
Airports across Europe, between Glasgow and Amsterdam, were affected with cancellations, diversions and more than one hairy landing across the network.
Gale force winds followed by IT failures
After a day of Storm Dennis related disruptions passengers flying to and from London Heathrow were subject to a major IT outage.
At least 10,000 passengers were affected according to The Independent. While 20 flights were grounded due to severe weather warnings, a further 80 were prevented from flying due to the "technical issues" which began on Sunday night.
Reports from the airport tell of planes taking off missing items of luggage and passengers failing to find the gate for their flights due to the technical issues.
Happened to our flight to MUC this afternoon. BA got special dispensation to fly with the luggage on board of those passengers who couldn’t find the gate due to the LHR technical issues. We still departed 2 hrs late though. Reckon about 15-20 weren’t onboard
A spokesperson for British Airways, which is based out of the airport, made a statement saying:
"Heathrow airport is currently experiencing technical issues that are impacting its IT systems across all terminals and affecting a number of airlines. Heathrow are working to resolve the issues that has caused disruption to our customers.
"We've introduced a flexible booking policy and have brought in extra colleagues to help our customers, providing them with overnight accommodation if needed."
