quote:

Originally posted by tubularbills i understand that. but what i'm saying is that why did he experience this when trying to land the first time, but not coming the other direction? what, did he circle around long enough for the winds to shift? crosswinds are usually not an isolated event. plus, the ATC (at least, all AF ones) get information about weather, including crosswind advisories. this is information that they should send to the pilot, and try to reroute him to a diff runway or diff path or something. i'm not trying to put a blame on anyone, i just think that the pilot should have been informed about the event before he landed. and if he did know about it, shouldn't have tried to be a "badass" or whatever and think, "oh, i can land/fly in anything!" mentality. ffs, he's dealing w/ passengers' lives, not his ego

1. The winds may have been such that the first approach was such that there was a crosswind with a little bit of a tailwind. Landing the opposite direction the second time may have produced more of a headwind. Landing in a quartering tailwind (crosswind from behind) is more difficult than landing with a quartering headwind (crosswind from front). I am sure he didn't circle around long enough for the winds to die down. He just caught a really nasty gust the first time, and landed safely the next attempt. It's really not that big of a deal.

2. I have been flying for 9 years, jets for 5, as a captain for 2, and have never heard of a "crosswind advisory". Wind information is always known before an airliner begins an approach, the pilots receive the local field weather information usually when about 100 miles away. In windy situations like this, the tower controller will generally also give an updated wind check when the airplane is on short final. If the pilot determines it is too much of a crosswind for the aircraft or crew to handle, then they will divert to another airport if the destination airport does not have the runway configuration to allow a safe landing (runways lined up with the wind as opposed to a direct crosswind). ATC will not reroute an airline because they deem it too windy, this is the captain's decision to make. ATC will allow an aircraft to continue an approach into known windshear, it is the pilots decision to attempt the landing or not, ATC only has to give the pilots the windshear alerts.

3. It sounds a lot like you are trying to blame someone, as you sit here and monday morning quarterback a decision made by a highly trained and experienced flight crew. I am not surprised really, most aviation stories that make the news are completely sensationalized by the media and general public, and fingers pointed by people who know nothing about the facts of the incident.