Planes struggle to land in 80mph wind at Amsterdam Airport

The winds that battered much of northern Europe led to stomach-churning scenes at Amsterdam Airport where planes struggled to land as they were battered by 80mph gusts.

Dramatic footage shows an aircraft being buffeted heavily by Storm Aileen as it came into land at Schipol earlier today.

For nervous fliers, crosswind landings can be terrifying, but pilots receive thorough training on how to perform them. 

On approach, they bring the plane in sideways to keep the nose lined up with the runway, in a technique known as a ‘crab’ landing. 

Speaking to MailOnline previously, Dai Whittingham, the chief executive of the UK Flight Safety Committee, stated that while crosswinds appear dangerous, they are an everyday occurrence.

He said: ‘High winds in themselves are not dangerous but they can certainly be inconvenient, especially if the wind direction is across the runway.

‘All pilots train to land in high crosswind conditions and will have practiced to the aircraft limits in the simulator.

Planes struggled to land as they were battered by 80mph gusts

For nervous fliers, crosswind landings can be terrifying, but pilots receive thorough training on how to perform them

‘When any new aircraft is certified to carry passengers it comes with a published crosswind limit, which is the maximum that has been demonstrated by a test pilot during the certification process.

‘If the wind is outside that limit the crew will have to take the aircraft to an alternate airport where the wind is within limits (which means a runway that has less of a crosswind component).

‘In practice, the wind is rarely aligned fully with the runway so there is always a slight crosswind to deal with, it is just the amount of it that varies.’