The sensational landing of an airplane, a few centimeters from people’s heads

Going on holiday to paradisiacal islands does not only guarantee crystal clear and warm waters, bright sun and dream landscapes. It can also increase the adrenaline rush of watching the landings from above if the airport is just meters from the beach.

For airplane enthusiasts, one of the great attractions of airports near the coast, such as Saint Maarten, in the Caribbean; that of phuket in Thailand, e on the island of SkiathosGreece, is that many tourists like to have close contact with the planes that land and take off.

But, of course, sometimes the approximation is too close for the force of the wind from the turbines to knock some tourists off their feet, as happened when a Airbus A321neo ultra low-cost airline Wizza Air landed on the Greek island on August 5 last year.

The news, which is not new, has gone viral in recent weeks.

emotion and danger

The aircraft with registration number HA-LZT was en route to W6 flight 8447 from Naples (NAP), Italy to Skiathos Island (JSI), and made a descent on landing that almost passed over the heads of the tourists they crowded on the beach at the head of the runway, to “hear” the arrival of the planes.

As it passed over the tourists, the force of the jet stream from the engines knocked some of them to the ground, and those on the perimeter fence dipped in reaction to the plane’s low altitude.

The edited video was taken from the recordings of some “spotters” (people passionate about aviation and aeronautics) and tourists who were on site at the time of the accident, taking videos and photos of the planes as they approached to land, and you can appreciate the moment the strong current from the motors knocks tourists off their feetespecially a little boy who posed for a spectacular photo.

The closer the Wizz Air aircraft approaches, the clearer it becomes that the aircraft is attempting a landing moments after passing the perimeter fence of Alexandros Papadiamantis Airport in Skiathos.

The roar of jet engines masks the howls of aviation fans as the plane comes within feet of their heads. And road dust is kicked up by the speed of the plane as several people walk away from the oncoming plane.

Skiathos Airport has a particularly short runway due to the geography of the island, meaning pilots have to approach further down than other runways.

“How many viewers do you think need new pants?” asked one person under the video, which was posted by the Air Force account Great Flyer.

Another Youtube commenter explained why pilots sometimes try to bring their planes to a stop as quickly as possible. And they explained: “High temperature and very short runway, you need to make a deep landing to make the most of the runway available for parking”.

And another explained: “Low-cost airlines operate with short response times, if you overheat the brakes you ruin the plane’s schedule.”

A third rejected suggestions that the pilot was playing to assembled crowds.

“Before we jump to conclusions, let’s say we don’t know why the plane went so terribly low in a fairly routine approach, but I doubt he was intentionally bluffing,” they wrote.

“However, the people who were there were definitely there intentionally despite the warning signs and traffic lights.

“You can’t get hurt if you’re not there. Glad to see the plane finally landed without any damage.”

Skíathos or Eskiatos is a small Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Located near Skopelos, Skiathos is the westernmost of the Sporades group of islands, located about 35 km from the island of Evia. It has an area of ​​49.9 square kilometers.