Plastic Pilot

The media have been buzzing last days, thanks to a video of an Airbus 320 going around in Hamburg, in strong crosswind situation, lightly hitting the left wing on the runway. Reporters made their usual job, and headlines ranged from “Hero Pilot Saves Hundreds of Lifes” to “A320 Nearly Crashed”.

I was somehow disappointed not to see something like “A Doomed Aircraft Threatens a Major City Before Crashing on A Kids School, Bringing Back Genetically Modified Dinosaurs Back To Life”. When all the burden will be over, it will be clear that all of it boils down to a few facts:

• The crew made its best to land in a very gusty crosswind situation
• A sudden gust took the aircraft away from its intended flight path
• The crew decided to go around and take a second approach

Gusts are by nature hard to predict. Landing in steady crosswind is a relatively easy and common thing, but gusts - particularly of that intensity - makes it much harder. Making the approach was a good decision, going around was good as well. The very timing of the go around could be questionned, but doing it after the incident is always much easier…

For me, the bottom line is that a crew went around in stormy conditions because the landing was no longer possible, hit the wingtip, and landed fine after second approach. Dot.

No crash, no catastrophe, an impressive incident. Everybody got on the ground safely. The dinosaurs have been added by media during post-production.

Video of the first landing attempt

Photo of the damage - The winglet is not even broken, but “only” folded below the wing