Narrator: It's not always a smooth
and pleasant landing for airplanes.
Intense strong winds can affect the position
of how planes land on the runway,
making it look like the plane
is literally landing sideways.
Here's how planes land sideways in high winds.
Landings like this actually have a name, crabbing.
The name comes from the way crabs walk sideways
across the beach.
That's kind of what the airplane looks like
when it's landing this way.
Crabbing is usually needed because of high crosswinds.
Les: The wind can either be blowing
straight down the runway
or 90 degrees to the runway or somewhere in between.
And usually it's somewhere in between there.
Narrator: That's Les Westbrooks.
He teaches aeronautical science
at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University,
and is a retired airline pilot.
- Landing in a crosswind situation
requires a couple of different maneuvers.
When we're at altitude, the aircraft just flies in a crab,
and we just go across, kinda sideways.
Once we get down to the ground, we can't land
with the aircraft in a crab,
because that's gonna put a lot of stress
on the outside of the landing gear,
and could actually cause the landing gear to collapse
if we put too much stress on it.
Narrator: Whenever there is a crosswind,
there's a lot of turbulence,
so it's not like the pilots are flying
through a slight summer breeze.
Of course the ultimate goal
is for the aircraft to land straight,
where the nose of the plane is in alignment
with the stripe that's down the runway.
Those crosswinds sure make it challenging!
- There is an angle to that.
You know, as a forced vector, so the direction
and the intensity that it's coming at will determine
how much input we have to put
into the aircraft's flight controls.
Narrator: As the plane comes in,
the pilots are actively controlling it,
so that it's in the perfect landing position.
But, when a gust of wind comes at the wrong time,
it will cause the pilot to execute
a go-around instead of landing.
If the crosswinds are severe enough,
around 45 miles per hour or so,
the pilot does not have enough control
to straighten the airplane out and land.
If this happens, the pilot will abandon the approach
and divert the plane to another airport.
These strong winds can prevent the planes
from taking off at an airport.
That's sometimes where those flight delays come in,
and we all love those!
So, exactly how do the aircrafts land in these conditions?
Les: So, at the last minute,
we want to move the nose of the aircraft
parallel with the runway, but soon as we do that,
the aircraft's gonna start blowing off
to the side of the runway with the wind.
So in order to counteract that,
we'd lower the wing, the upwind wing,
we lower the wing, and straighten the nose out,
and a perfect crosswind landing
will be when the upwind wheel touches down first,
the aircraft is straight down the runway,
and then the second wheel will come down after that.
Narrator: Finally, the plane is on the runway
and heading to the terminal.
- Some of your best landings are actually made
when it is in challenging conditions,
'cause you are on your A-game when you're doing this.
All right, and you're completely engaged,
and actively controlling the airplane so,
actually some of our best landings are made
when we are in these crosswind landing situations.
Narrator: So, if you're ever on a plane
that feels like it's landing sideways,
feel safe knowing the pilots have the situation
totally under control.