British ex-pat Peter Kempson’s video of a terrifying failed landing in popular holiday hotspot Rhodes has gone viral, with passengers on the Boeing 737 fearing for their lives
Nervous flyers should look away now. In horrifying scenes that left tourists fearing for their lives, a passenger jet ‘bounced’ down the runway and almost crashed after a chilling ‘missed landing’.
The Enter Air plane was travelling from Poland to the holiday island of Rhodes in Greece when the windy conditions caused chaos as it attempted to touch down on the runway.
The plane had experienced a missed landing, meaning the pilot had to abort his approach at the last minute due to dangerous winds. According to British ex-pat Peter Kempson, who posted a video of the drama on Facebook, the situation was dire.
“Having already done one aborted missed approach, the Enter Air Boeing 737-800 (SP-ESE) – arriving from Gdansk, Poland – bounced on the runway and came very close to an engine or wing strike,” said the aviation enthusiast, who was enjoying a coffee in the Airport View Café with friend Tony Cowell when he filmed the bumpy landing.
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The 71-year-old’s video attracted more than 300,000 videos on the social media site, with one commenter having first hand experience of the scary landing. “I cried on that plane,” said Marta. “I thought we were going to die. Everyone was screaming.”
Landing on its second approach, the Enter Air plane was filmed bouncing from side-to-side on the runway after the hard landing at Rhodes International Airport last Friday. “Being an aviation enthusiast with a like-minded old friend visiting from the UK, we decided to go to the Airport View Cafe,” said Peter. “With the windy conditions that day, we thought the excellent viewing location of the cafe would be worth visiting to watch the arriving aircraft land in the very challenging conditions.
“Strong crosswinds can lead to many missed approaches, bumpy landings and diversions at the airport.” The plane fan praised the pilot of the Boeing 737 for having “showed great skills in very challenging weather conditions”.
At the time of landing, there were crosswinds of up to 45kph. “Rhodes Airport is known for challenging landings when the wind is from the south east and above 15 knots,” Peter explained. “This is due to hills on the landward side or the airport often creating wind shear. Nine times out of 10, Rhodes airport has westerly winds which align with the runway and are more stable.”
Reports suggested several other flights had been diverted to nearby airports including Athens, Kos and Dalaman due to the strong winds on Friday. Locals commenting on Peter’s video included Terry who said it was: “Very close to fatal crash” with Keeley admitting: “I would be crying if I was on the this one”.
Other people were full of praise for the skill of the flight crew, with one local saying: “Jeez, that was risky…” and another adding: “Congratulations to the pilots and the crew of the aircraft”.