Strong Turbulence and Hard Landing!🫣 Alaska Airline

From Los Angeles to Seattle

[ReissDHozak]

I understand how, for someone with little experience being in the air, this landing might seem scary. However, this is by no means a hard landing and is certainly nothing to worry about.

A hard landing for a jetliner is generally considered to be any landing where the rate of descent exceeds 240 feet per minute, or around four feet per second, when the wheels make contact with the ground. Airline pilots tend to shoot for a vertical airspeed of between 60 and 180 fpm (1-3 fps) upon touchdown. This landing -- judging by the flare and by the (albeit few) points of physical reference shown in the video -- is probably somewhere in the middle of that optimal range. I've never flown anything bigger than a 182T outside a simulator, but this looks to me like a textbook landing for this aircraft type in these conditions. Plus, if it were a harder landing, you wouldn't be the only startled passenger, and your phone would jump a whole lot more on contact.

Funnily enough, too soft of a landing, especially in inclement weather, can actually be a bad thing. During a super-duper-buttery-soft landing, the aircraft's tires will sort of drag across the ground instead of spinning up to the proper RPM. This means that you'll exacerbate wear on the tires (basically shredding them on the tarmac) and that you'll increase the likelihood that the aircraft will hydroplane and leave the runway. Worst of all, a long flare means you're basically "floating" down the runway without touching the ground for much longer. This could cause you to overshoot the end of the runway and crash. A firm landing, like the one you experienced, spins up the tires faster, and lets the pilots do what they need to do (i.e. deploying the air brakes and engaging reverse thrust) in enough time that they _won't_ overshoot the runway.

It's also worth noting that big passenger jets are designed to take a beating. Remember that 240 fpm threshold for a hard landing? Most jetliners are rated to withstand the forces of a landing at almost three times that speed (600 fpm) without experiencing landing gear failure.

If you want to experience a hard landing, try flying Ryanair. I'm sure they'd be happy to give you a demo.

[Xavier_today]

Thats not a hard landing its shmoot bruh