CRAZY MIDWEST THUNDERSTORMS – STORMY Takeoff Chicago O'Hare – United Airlines – A320-232 – N451UA

READ DESCRIPTION: May 21, 2024: fueled by high heat and humidity, a hugely powerful storm system swept across the midwest. Stretching as far south as Chicago and all the way north to Minneapolis, the thunderstorms produced several tornadoes and incredibly high winds. Wind gusts exceeded 60MPH at times at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. This led to numerous go arounds and diversions at O'Hare. My flight took off right before the storm and flew north, but the storm caught us, and we were forced to punch through a lighter section on the radar. The United Airlines A320 I was flying on was struck by lightning several times and experienced severe turbulence.

Video Information:

Airline: United Airlines
Aircraft: Airbus A320-232
Reg: N451UA

Origin: Portland, ME (PWM)
Destination: Chicago, IL (ORD)
Flight Time: 2:52

Camera: iPhone X/Sony A7iii
Editing: FCPX

Please do not use any of the footage or audio in this video without my express permission.

Reed Foster 2024

[flapsnslats]

This was QUITE the wild ride out of ORD. Saw numerous missed approaches and some crazy crabbing. We changed to a different runway, shut down the #2 engine and resumed SET 2x on the taxiway to conserve fuel so we could fly north to escape the storms. Thanks for watching.

[gedstrom]

Some years ago, I was on a Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. While taxing for takeoff, Our runway was switched a couple of times and we seemed to be taxing all of the place. The pilot finally came on the intercom and said "Well, we have taxied about as far as we can and will have to fly the rest of the way to Los Angeles." Everyone laughed.

[afridgetoofar]

“Welcome onboard flight 516, heading out to…ah…Jim, where are we going again?”

[B_i_a_n_c_a_BETTINI]

The pilots voice, music to my ears…..soothing 🫶❤️🇦🇺

[markanthony]

Heeey I fly on United the most and I've been through O'Hare enough to have seen snow, rain, thunderstorms, high winds you name it. Love O'Hare honestly

[timbukh]

Every time I see a video of a plane leaving the ground my mind cannot comprehend the difference between ground speed and how fast the plane is traveling through the air. While on the ground there is a feeling of speed, but once it is in the air I lose this awareness. I imagine it might sound ridiculous and I may be alone but thought I'd put it out there. Enjoyed the video.

[bulldog]

Ahh I remember this storm. I work at UPS in Omaha, NE and this very same storm diverted our A300 to Kansas City while we rode out the storm. Rain was so intense and hard that we couldn't even see the taxi lights that were only about 50 yards from our building and hail was reported getting up to near golf ball size.

Glad you made it out in time because that storm was no joke.

[hovilleed]

Honestly this video was quite peaceful to me, call me crazy if ya want!

[JacobTemple_CE]

Reminds me when I flew back home over the Rockies, seeing the wing bounce and flex like that was a bit of a surprise. Oddly fun with the amount of turbulence though 😂

[mikewilson]

You aren't kidding, Tuesday evening was a wild one. I flew into MKE Milwaukee about 6:30 PM and you could see the thunderstorm anvil tops blowing in from the west already. Southerly winds gusting to 40 mph then.

[bluehorseshoe]

nice camera- feels like i'm there

[pennyparham]

Glad you made it safely to your destination

[BFFAvgeek]

That’s one of the best Chicago plane videos I’ve ever seen! Nice one! 😁✈️

[rodolfoayalajr.]

Beautiful 🤩 video. Thank you for sharing. I do follow Mayday, Mayday and others. I like the reenactment of crashes and the investigation.

[MsRocker]

Thank you cool video! I love take offs and especially at night !

[suebeth]

Former F/A here for over 25 years based in Chicago. I will say flying in the summer can be difficult in the Midwest. Weather comes up very quickly and the controllers did the right thing to keep you safe by redirecting you, even if adds time to your taxi. Secondly I really don’t think you were “hit” by lightning 3 TIMES!!! . The pilots would have turned around and landed. What you saw was a big flash .

[povertyspec]

Used to live near Chicago. Landing at Midway in dense fog, where you don't see the runway out the window until you're on it, was so much fun!

[goldgamer]

I just flew out of O-Hare and I just saw my united flight. We were heading to Jackson Hole. We were the 737-900.

[coachman]

As a trucker, I’ve been through Bozeman Montana many times, never knew they had an airport

[facingthewind]

I can’t remember ever seeing approaches on the 22's at ORD and I’m on FR24 pretty much every day. Really like what you did with showing the other flights on the radar.