A live YouTube stream of planes valiantly trying to land at London’s Heathrow Airport during “Eunice,” the storm that is hitting Britain on Friday, has become an unprecedented online success.
Aviation enthusiast Jerry Dyer has been streaming different aircrafts’ attempts to land at the London airport in punishing winds of up to 70 mph on his Big Jet TV channel.
The BBC reports that his lively commentary plus the footage as planes approach, sometimes having to abort, have been attracting more than 200,000 live viewers at times on Friday.
86,000 people are currently watching a live stream of a guy shouting GO ON THEN at pilots trying to land planes at Heathrow in #StormEunice pic.twitter.com/Oxa80Vtgeo
— Tom Hourigan (@TomHourigan) February 18, 2022
Dyer told the BBC the feed was “the most exciting stuff you can get.”
For several hours on Friday, Dyer has been running the live stream from the roof of a specially adapted van, shouting “go on son,” “nicely done!” and “fair play mate” at pilots who somehow manage to land successfully despite the almost hurricane-strength winds battering the UK.
“The pilot of Queen of Hearts is inbound…his wife is watching”@BigJetTVLIVE giving us the best drama of the year pic.twitter.com/QABMS5hNSo
— Greg James (@gregjames) February 18, 2022
For trickier landings, he helpfully advised pilots to “go around again,” and as one pilot abandoned an attempt to touch down at the last second amid strong winds, Dyer exclaimed: “Ooh, he did not like that.”
Watching planes during storm “best scenario you could imagine”
Speaking to BBC Radio 2, Dyer said the compelling footage was “the best scenario you could imagine” for entertainment value.
“Big kudos to the pilots and the crews working at the airports,” he said. “Normally the conditions are calm and we have great shows we do for hours on end, people watching from all over the world.
One man stood on his van outside Heathrow airport streaming planes trying to land in heavy crosswinds and needless to say Twitter is loving it. pic.twitter.com/rPHR3dm3xY
— LADbible (@ladbible) February 18, 2022
The Storm called Eunice tore off rooftops, uprooted trees, crushed cars and sent planes skidding on London’s runways as millions of people across the United Kingdom hunkered down at home to stay out of its at times hurricane-strength winds.
The UK Met Office expanded its rare “danger-to-life” weather alert on Friday morning to include most of the south of England and some of Wales, before Eunice picked up speed even more, with winds as high as 122 miles per hour (mph), the highest ever recorded in England.
High wind speeds are what make wind storms so intense and they make airport landings particularly difficult.
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