Terrifying moment pilot forced to abandon landing during storm at London City Airport

Flight AZ222 tried to land at City Airport
Vimeo/Ship A Day
Mark Chandler9 February 2016

This is the terrifying moment a plane had to abandon its landing at London City Airport as it was battered by high winds from Storm Imogen.

The hair-raising footage was taken of flight AZ222 as it came into land from Milan yesterday afternoon as stormy weather blasted the capital.

Images showed the Alitalia flight wobbling alarmingly in the air as it approached the runway.

Its wheels bounced off the ground several times before the pilot decided to head back into the sky and try again.

Forecasters said London City Airport saw gusts of up to 53mph yesterday, while the winds caused further havoc across the capital.

Alitalia said in a statement: "Our flight from Milan was forced to halt its landing at London City Airpot due to strong winds caused by Storm Imogen.

"The flight landed safely several minutes later. This type of manoeuvre is practiced regularly by our pilots and was impeccably performed by the captain.

"Our passengers were constantly kept informed about the procedure and were never in any danger."

Another video uploaded to YouTube claimed to show an “extreme aborted landing” at Heathrow Airport.

The aircraft appears to be shaken by turbulence before a loud thud is heard as it briefly touches down on the ground before soaring off again.

Matt Rowlinson, who took the video, said he had intended to get a flight to City Airport from Zurich originally but, after an hour of waiting on board, passengers were swapped to a different flight because of the weather conditions in London.

Mr Rowlinson, 21, said: “At first everyone thought the shaking was quite amusing, they were in good spirits.

“But once it hit the ground and almost rebounded back up the atmosphere changed.”

He said: “The time it took to re-descend was the longest 10 to 15 minutes of anyone’s lives because the plane was constantly being thrown about.

“There was no point where people felt we were in danger but it was terrifying none the less.”

A spokesman for Swiss International Airlines blamed the incident on a "strong gust". He said: "The attempt to land as well as the cockpit’s decision to do a go-around were correct and fully in accordance with our procedures.

"Our passengers were informed shortly after the go-around and not in danger at any time. As mentioned in the screen credits of the video, the second landing was successful."

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