This is the moment a holiday plane was chucked around in the air and slammed into the tarmac in a ‘horror landing’.
Tourists from Nuremberg, Germany, were arriving at one of the ‘most challenging airports for pilots’, Madeira Airport, when the chaos unfolded.
The jet swayed from side to side as it inched towards the runway, before bouncing on the ground as it landed on the Portuguese island on June 30.
Madeira Airport, officially called Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, is notorious for its steep cliffs and unpredictable winds, which mean pilots require special training to land there.
One passenger, who claimed to be on the Marabu Airlines A320 flight, called it a ‘horror landing’.
She added: ‘Terrible. It was bumpy, it went back and forth. The landing felt terrible, there was a loud bang. I thought the plane was going to break apart.’
Data on Flightradar24 showed the flight suddenly swerving and flying in a loop just before 5.40pm local time before making the shaky landing.
It was, according to a YouTube account that captured the landing on a livestream, ‘a true test of skill and nerve’ for the pilot.
At least four flights were diverted from Madeira Airport on June 30 due to ‘adverse weather conditions’, Correio da Manhã reported.
This affected three flights from London and another from Vilnius.
Over 80 flights were cancelled or diverted due to high winds at the airport over three days in August 2024, although accidents are rare.
The scary Madeira Airport landing came a day before Japan Airlines flight suddenly started ‘plummeting violently’ before making an emergency landing.
The Boeing 737 Flight JL8696/IJ004, operated under a code share deal with budget carrier Spring Airlines Japan, dropped 26,000ft in 10 minutes on Monday evening.
The aircraft, due to fly 191 passengers and crew from Shanghai to Tokyo, was diverted to Osaka shortly before 9pm local time.
Video clips posted to social media by shell-shocked travellers once they landed show oxygen masks dropping during the panic-filled descent.
Japan’s transport ministry said the aircraft’s alarm system detected an abnormality in the mechanism responsible for maintaining cabin pressure, the Independent reports.
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