Monday, March 03, 2008

A "Crash" Course (almost) In Vectors

One vector is the force exerted on the aircraft by the engine thrust, pointing about 30 degrees to the right of the runway. A second vector is that force exerted on the aircraft by the hurricane-force winds in Hamburg, Germany, of all places. The resultant vector (hopefully) points right down the center of the runway.

Except in this harrowing video, it doesn't. Imagine being a passenger.

The good news: after scraping the left wing along the ground, the pilot instantly aborted the landing and came around for another pass, successfully landing on that attempt.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i would have just called to either stay in the air, or go 2 a nearby airport

W.R. Chandler said...

My knuckles got white and my palms got sweaty just watching that.

I have been a passenger on some pretty harrowing landings, but nothing like that!

Anonymous said...

Must've been blowing like hell to have that much crab cranked in. The instant he tried to straighten out to put it on the runway he was blown off the runway.