An airline pilots reply to this would be greatly appreciated:

I once observed a major air carrier land in a driving thunderstorm on ORD runway 22R. The wings were rocking and lightning was almost continous. From my point of view it seems as though the passengers safety wasn't foremost regarding the completion of this flight. (I'm sure many of those passengers would agree)! This storm had yet to arrive at Chicago MDW which would of made a perfect alternate for this medium size Boeing. What could be the justification for landing in such conditions? Dallas L-1011 and New Orleans 727 are still prime examples of the potentally hazardous outcomes of operations in such weather!

Thanks!

What point of view was this? Were you on the airplane? Were you an air traffic controller? A dispatcher? A National Weather Service forecaster? An airport manager? A ramp agent? Or a Monday morning quarterback?

I take it the plane landed successfully. That on its own means that it was clearly safe.
The wings were rocking - they are made to do that.
The lightning was almost continuous - near the plane?
Yes the conditions were poor, but the pilots would not have even attempted a landing if it was unsafe.

Morris

P.S. I'm not an airline pilot (yet), but I'm working towards my ppl (50 mins solo - yay!).

True, unless you were on the flight deck or watching the weather RADAR at that moment, it is just Monday morning quarterbacking to assume the aircraft went through "a driving thunderstorm". The lightning and most intense echoes may have been close, but not close enough to prohibit an attempted landing.

I guess I'm confused. If you're that highly qualified (and you haven't shown that you're not) then why ask the question?

I can answer it from my perspective as a highly evolved and experienced coward. In those kind of conditions I'm going to seek out all of the information that I can get. PIREPS are at the very top of my list of priorities since they are from the "been there, landed in that" crowd. I also want to hear from the controllers. They will provide things like braking action reports, ground level observations and some radar feedback. In conditions such as this I feel pretty confident that I'll be getting a vector to a long final. That gives us plenty of time to play with the radar (it's very good in what I fly) and thus get a good feel for the current location of the actual cells, their intensity and direction of movement. If everything falls into place, we land. If I get that tingleing in my backbone (if I had one of those) then we go elsewhere. And by the way, Midway isn't necessarily a good alternate for O'Hare. It has limited parking and shorter runways.

I hope that you enjoy your visits here. The folks who frequent this site are very giving with their knowledge and experience. But they will also hammer anyone who they think is gaming them.

Speaking of thunderstorms:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7238809.stm

Regards,
Chris

I usually don't criticize the BBC, but



Yeah no kidding.. The incident also comes years after the first powered flight and the creation of the universe. Does this really need pointing out? Sheesh.

Evidently, the pilot landed because the information he was given was within his aircrafts, his companies, and his own skill parametres which dictated it would be a safe landing. If at any point, the Captain of the aircraft thought it would be an unsafe, the aircraft would of gone around. If at any point, the copilot of the aircraft thought it would be an unsafe, the aircraft would of gone around. If at any point, the flight engineer of the aircraft thought it would be an unsafe, the aircraft would of gone around. Just call go around.

The truth is, none of us know the exact conditions the plane was landing in, just, 'it was unsafe to drive', and all the evidence points to it being safe to land, that's why they did. Isoloated Accidents such as American Airlines 1420, and Delta 191, had far more factors other than 'a thunderstorm did it' and doesn't have a any correlation with the 727 you saw.

So let me see. You've made a video and they are now for sale, in bulk. And had the pilots bought the video, the approach would not have been started because they would have been better educated? Or maybe, their judgement, based upon a few years experience, a properly calibrated weather radar (both airborne and ground), good INS/IRS data, updated actuals, fully serviceable aircraft, well informed ATC etc. meant that a continued approach would have sensible option.

Trained spotter, my arse!

PM