These are crosswind landings – a staple of YouTube aviation channels. And while news outlets may like to frame dramatic-looking landings like these as “risky” or “nail-biting”, the picture inside the flightdeck is one of concentrated calm. There is a well-rehearsed technique to “push off the drift” for a smooth, straight and safe landing. Although that’s not to say there aren’t challenges.

Ideally, aircraft land facing into wind. This increases the airspeed – the rate air is forced over the wings to maintain aerodynamic manoeuvrability – while reducing the aircraft’s actual speed over the ground. While runways are normally designed to run parallel to the prevailing wind, this is not always possible at some airports – nor is the weather always compliant. Crosswinds are inevitable, so pilots practise these landings frequently in their simulator sessions.

All of our aircraft have “crosswind limits”, as Head of Line Operations Captain James Toye and Line Operations Manager Captain Tony Pringle explain. “When manufacturers build a new aircraft, they fly it around the world to find the most extreme crosswinds they can, and determine what that limit is,” says Captain Toye. “We abide by those and typically, if the wind was over the limits, we wouldn’t even do an approach and attempt to land; we would go straight to a diversion.”