A similar video has been run repeatedly on the Weather Channel. Wind gusts in the area were reported in excess of 100 mph. After the go-around, the pilot safely landed.

Oops!

I don't think Foster Brooks was the pilot...

I'm curious, everyone is calling the pilot a hero, I'd like to know why the landing was attempted in the first place. In the US, this airport would have been closed and all aircraft would have either been diverted or held on the ground at their departure airport (read canceled). I believe this pilot, after landing on the 2nd attempt, went straight to the restroom with a change of clothes, particularly his underwear! I'm certain there was a long line behind him!

If the wind gusts were as reported, this was way past the safety limits for arrival/departure regardless of whether it was a headwind or crosswind. Lufthansa, me no fly!

P.S. I'm sure many of you have seen the video of the first landing attempt, watch it if you haven't. The Foster Brooks video that Rusty posted is priceless!!! By the way, it wasn't Foster Brooks flying this aircraft, it was repotedly his drinking buddy.

Good point - after this mess, the tower shifted from the depicted runway 23 to 33, closing the former.

But I agree, there's a point where the PIC has to take charge and do what needs to be done.

My son-in-law, who flys big jets, made an observation. Crabbing into a cross wind is not an unusual maneuver. If you crab right, into the wind, you drop the right wing. That way, when you straighten out the plane, the wind won't lift the wing as it did in this case, causing the left wing to scrape the ground. Nevertheless, the pilot did a great job at righting the aircraft and avoiding a major disaster

Ah, yes, the inimitable crosswind landing. It should never have been attempted. The pilot knew the wind speed and direction before he ever crossed the runway threshhold, as evidenced by the fact that he was able to do a go-around. (Jet engines take some time to spool back up.) He had to have known ahead of time that the crosswinds exceeded the rated limits of the aircraft.

I would think that putting the upwind wing down (in order to create a sideslip that 'holds the runway') is verboten with commercial airliners since they sit so low to Terra Firma in normal ground operations making wingtips extemely vulnerable to schrapeinzees. Instead, the gear is made to absorb a sideload, but not like the sideload this pilot would have encountered had he not vamoosed.

I haven't flown anything heavier than an R4D-4 (a DC-3 on steroids), but crosswind landings present two techniques to accomplish.

One is to hold the nose on runway heading and to cross-control a slip into the wind; this is practical with crosswinds only up to a certain vector. The other technique is to crab into the wind (with a slight slip to keep the upwind wing slightly low), straightening out to runway heading just before touchdown.

Both techniques rely on relatively constant crosswinds; gusts can clobber what looked like a beautiful approach, and the only recourse is a go-around. I remember one technically gorgeous approach I made in Manning, Iowa in the face of approaching thunderstorms. What marred a spectacular landing amidst applause was that at about 150' AGL, I got flipped onto my back. Fortunately, I had plenty of aileron authority, and rolled through, planting that sucker on the ground in a test of the landing gear's ability to absorb a max-descent landing. It did.

Inadvertent snap roll at 150'? Certainly not in an R4D. What was it?

1947 Ercoupe - full-span ailerons - I was on my way back to my folks' in St. Joseph, MO after Oshkosh.

Rusty, you must have had your seatbelt on since the only way out of an Ercoupe is through the roof. (I 'spose the pucker factor would have caused you to expand sufficiently to hold your place.)

For those who don't know Ercoupes, there usually is no cross-controlling (wing down with opposite rudder)to hold the runway since most of them don't have rudders. You fly them with a steering wheel and appropriate in-out action to control altitude.

Oshkosh is hosting the F-22 Raptor this year. Great destination for a Barth or two....

I was strapped in, and the luggage (mine had a luggage compartment conversion) never had time to shift; it all happened somewhat FAST!

Mine had the rudder conversion, but the stock Ercoupe's landing gear was designed to swivel, as the standard crosswind procedure was to plant it onto the runway still crabbed into the wind. I think the Ercoupe's LG was sturdier than that on my Bonanza.