Media Hysteria

I was greeted by a picture in the paper today of an airliner landing at Edinburgh Airport in the recent bad weather.

The caption refers to 'bumpy landing' and the airliner being 'buffeted by strong winds'.  Media panic?

This is not necessarily supported by the photograph however.  All we see is an airliner coming in 'wing low'. 

Any pilot in the audience will recognise this as a standard option available to pilots in strong  cross winds and does not imply buffeting or a bumpy landing.  There are two approaches available to pilots which may be used alone or in combination. 

The first is the crab approach whereby the aircraft is kept level but pointing in to the wind, hence the name as it appears to be crabbing sideways down the runway.  This requires the pilot to straighten the aircraft just before touchdown.  Too early and the aircraft will drift sideways, too late and there will be excessive load on the landing gear and a jerk as the aircraft pulls straight.

The second approach, which may be what is displayed here, is the wing down approach which allows the aircraft to sideslip into the wind while remaining straight down the runway.  It has the advantage that it can often be maintained until touchdown.  Where a risk does exist however is if the bank angle exceeds a certain aircraft specific figure which means there is a risk of the wingtip or an engine touching the runway.

Airline pilots are highly trained for these situations, aircraft are designed to handle them, only the media like to hype it up to generate a story.