Challenging encounters with strong gusty crosswinds during the approach and landing phase in commercial air transport — never routine for flight crews and sometimes underestimated by air traffic control (ATC) — involve some risk because of systemic gaps, mismatches and misconceptions, says Gerard van Es, senior consultant for flight operations and flight safety, National Aerospace Laboratory Netherlands (NLR).
He explained the impetus for further study of the factors involved and a few of NLR’s recently developed recommendations during Flight Safety Foundation’s International Air Safety Seminar in Santiago, Chile, in October 2012. In April, van Es updated AeroSafety World about industry responses to the complete report that he and a colleague, Emmanuel Isambert, prepared as advisers to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).1
Difficult surface wind conditions2 have confronted pilots since the flights of Wilbur and Orville Wright, and one…
