A heart-stopping video caught the dramatic moment a Lufthansa Airlines Boeing 747 violently bounced off the runway at LAX before aborting the landing.
On Tuesday, the 747-8i, Boeing’s largest ‘Jumbo Jet,’ was attempting to land at Los Angeles Airport, but the plane struck the runway hard and bounced twice, forcing the pilot to abort.
The frightening moment was documented in a livestream by Airline Videos Live, a group of airplane enthusiasts ‘dedicated to bringing high-quality video’ of commercial aviation ‘to viewers worldwide.’
In the video, Lufthansa Flight 456, which originated in Frankfurt, Germany, could be seen sweeping down toward the runway with its landing gear extended.
Everything appeared to be going smoothly until the plane’s back wheels touched down, at which point a cloud of white smoke burst from the wheels.
Then the plane abruptly jerked upward, its wheels hovering over the ground for a few yards.
The plane lurched downward again, this time both the front and back wheels making contact with the runway.
But as soon as the wheels touched down, the plane, which seats 400 passengers and crew, bounced upward.
After the second botched landing, the pilot decided to abort and the video showed the plane ascending into the sky.
While the plane bounced along the runway, Kevin Ray, the website’s owner and chief commentator, shouted: ‘Holy Moly!’
‘That is the roughest landing I think we’ve ever caught on our broadcast,’ said Ray, later adding that they could ‘smell’ the burnt rubber from the wheels.
Lufthansa Flight 456 proceeded to circle the airport and landed without an issue a short time later.
As of right now, it is unclear whether this incident was the result of some malfunction with the 9-year-old Boeing plane or if it was caused by something else.
Earlier this week, there was another fraught landing with a Boeing plane at an airport in South Africa.
Moments after take off, a Boeing 737 plane lost a wheel and the pilot was forced to execute an emergency landing.
Safety staff at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, noticed the FlySafair aircraft had damaged its undercarriage on take off on 21st April.
After being ordered back, the pilots made a low pass over the runway so engineers could inspect the damage.
They found one of four rear wheels had been clipped during takeoff and ordered the plane down. But video footage of the landing shows the wheel disintegrating as the plane tried to taxi down the runway.
The clip shows flight FA212 with smoke billowing from the damaged wheel.
Seconds later there was a huge bang and parts of the wheel flew off as the undercarriage collapsed sending the jet leaning sideways towards its port (left) wing as it ground to a halt towards the end of the footage.
Miraculously no one was injured in the drama, reported local media, and passengers were evacuated and offered another flight.
The two incidents are only the latest ones involving Boeing, whose reputation has been left badly tarnished after a near-fatal accident early this year.
On January 5, an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to conduct an emergency maneuver after an emergency exit door on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet blew off mid-flight.
In the accident’s aftermath, some 171 planes among the firm’s fleet were grounded pending safety investigations and the Federal Aviation Administration capped production of the aircraft.
About $30billion of market value was wiped out in a matter of days, while share prices have since fallen by 25 per cent.
Boeing has also had to pay $160million to Alaska Airlines in ‘initial compensation’ due to the grounding and passengers on the plane have filed lawsuits, while the US Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation.
