AIRLINERS
This page was last updated on
06/08/2008
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Despite commercial aviation's incredible safety record, the greatest fear of
every airline passenger is an in-flight incident. Some of these videos
capture that "moment of truth" when bad things happen during a routine
flight. |
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707 Flying -- The
Way Things Were This Pan Am promotional video
from 1958 is almost painful to watch, for those of us who remember how
wonderful airline travel used to be. For those too young to recall,
the level of service shown in this video will look more like science fiction
than fact -- but trust us, it really used to be this way! |
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737 Crash Landing
Incident is a Boeing 737 landing at Birmingham, UK with the right landing
gear missing, after tearing off the starboard gear when attempting to land
at East Midlands Airport in bad weather. The pilot missed the
runway and landed in the grass, doing extensive damage to the aircraft.
He was able to fly some 40 miles to Birmingham, where the incident was
caught on video by the West Midlands Police helicopter.
Click
here to view the Air Accident Investigation Board's official report.
Click
here to view the BBC report of this incident. Click
here to see pix of the plane after it landed. |
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737 Engine Fire A post-maintenance engine test shows
that they mechanics haven't quite found the problem yet!
From a spotter: "In the Video 737 Engine Fire there is nothing
wrong with the engine. When you install an engine that has been has
been in storage "preserved" It has a lot of preservative in the fuel control
system. (fuel control, fuel pump, etc.) That is what you see burning.
It is very spectacular to watch, and any time we would install a "preserved"
engine we would have a crowd to watch the show. As you can see in the short
video the engine is not shut down when the flames appear, as would happen if
something were really wrong." |
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737
Farewell Fly-By A final fly-by in Calgary, Alberta as West Jet
retires their last Boeing 737-200. |
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Landing Wouldn't want to be on *that* flight! |
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747 Flight Demo The pilot of this South African air
lines 747 puts on a beautiful flight demonstration. It's hard to
believe anything so big could look so graceful! |
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747 Landing
This beautiful video was contributed by Robert Lane, of Lumenosity, LLC
2006. This video is copyrighted to Lumenosity, LLC 2006. |
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747 Off the
Runway! Security camera footage of a Tradewinds 747
running off the end of a runway on 6/6/06. |
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747
Retirement Flight Watch as this pilot shows
consummate skill planting the big Boeing onto a very narrow, very short
runway, for display in an aviation museum. |
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747 Water
Bomber Got a big fire to put out? You
*need* this plane! |
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757 Fly-By
This video, taken on Friday, 2/10/06, is of an Iceland Air 757 showing
off a brand new set of winglets just installed by
Kelowna Flightcraft, based in
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. |
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757 Radical Departure
This 757-200 has been fitted with Rolls-Royce engines, which clearly develop
an impressive amount of power. Filmed by Erin Johnson.
Additional Info, from
Andrew Burfield:
"This Boeing 757-200 of No.40 Squadron, Royal New
Zealand Air Force, is performing a 350 knot pass at 100 ft, before
displaying the 757’s awesome power-to-weight ratio with a 45 degree climb
out to 7,500ft. The video was taken at RNZAF Base Whenuapai, Auckland, New
Zealand, probably at the 2004 Air Force Open Day."
New 6/8/08 Info from Erin
Johnson -- the videographer who filmed the departure:
Basically, what has been written is correct regarding the height, speed and
climbout angle, however it wasn't at an airshow. It was a private
function for past and present members of 40 Squadron RNZAF and at the end of
the day there was a small flying display by the 757 and a C130 Hercules. 40
Sqn operate both types of aircraft. For your info: The RNZAF purchased their
two 757's from Transavia and we started flying them as soon as they were
re-painted and delivered. No modifictions were done to them, so in effect,
this display is from a standard 757-200 with RR RB211 engines fitted. Both
757's are now at Mobile, Alabama having some extensive mods done to them -
including the fitting of a large cargo door in the front left side,
strengthening the forward section floor for loading of freight pallets,
fitting of airstairs which operate from the rear entry door (these are
really long as the tail end is a long way off the ground) and the fitting of
a crew entry ladder.
The large upwards opening cargo door is a huge job. Normally when 757's
get converted to cargo planes, that's all they can carry is the emergency
oxygen system, reading lights, air ducts and everything else in the overhead
panels are removed in total. In our Mod, we're getting a combi fit. This
means there are numerous combinations available to use: part cargo, part
passenger in various layouts or a full passenger fit. This means that the
overhead panels need to remain - even on the door. So it'll be interesting
to see how everything has been wired and plumbed. I had heard talk of
getting the engines uprated but can't confirm if this is happening. The
first aircraft was recently finished and is now entering the flight test
evalution phase of the project once some smaller niggles have been
rectified.
We're looking forward to getting our two jets backs. They're the only
ones our Airforce has !! Regards, Erin. |
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757 Short-Field Departure This video, shot in
Reykavik, Iceland, shows an impossibly short-field take-off performed by a
Boeing 757, followed by some nice high-speed passes. |
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777 Engine
Change A neat video compilation of the steps involved with
changing a huge jet engine on one of the world's largest airliners. |
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New 3/31/08
777
Time-Lapse This amazing video shows the
construction so a Boeing 777 airliner from start to finish in time-lapse
photography. VERY cool! |
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A Day In The Life of An
Airport Well, not an entire day -- but this is amazing
time-lapse photography of a busy international airport, centered on loading
a 747. |
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Air Tindi Flyby Taken in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories,
Canada, this video shows a Dash 7 doing a low-level fly-by. The slow
frame rate of this video makes it look like all four props are stopped!
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Afghan Airbus A-300 Nosegear Failure
Home video of yet another in a long series of Airbus nosegear extension
failures. Here's the story, from contributor Peter Metz:
"This shows FG flight 709, bound from Kabul to
Dubai, which left the Kabul Airport with 261 passengers on board.
After departure the pilot had a problem with the front wheel gear and could
not retract it. Instead of proceeding to Dubai Airport (flight time
2:30 minutes), with all relevant security measures he decided to land back
at Kabul Airport."
"Capt. Abdul Rahman asked the tower to
investigate the problem. Kabul Airport sent an ICRC plane to
investigate the problem from beneath the aircraft. After the problem
was located, the captain released most of all the full tanks of kerosene and
made a final approach at Kabul Airport. At this time there were still
about 30,000 mines lying around beside the apron."
"After the plane came off the runway nothing
happened, and the fire brigades went to rescue the aircraft and passengers.
The plane came to stand about 50 meters beside the runway without any
problems. All passengers escaped the aircraft safely. Capt. Rahman got
out of the plane, had a cigarette smoke, and took all the passengers to
Dubai in a second plane approximately an hour later. ISAF than
pulled the plane from beside the apron, stretched the wheel straight, and
pulled it to the maintenance department." |
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Airbus A-320 Radical
Departure Nothing like a 60-degree climb-out to keep unruly
passengers in their seats... |
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Airbus A-321
Extreme Crosswind An aborted landing nearly goes terribly
wrong in a howling crosswind. |
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Airbus
A-380 Crosswind Certification Watch as the
biggest airliner in the world lands in some extreme crosswinds! (This
video is from Iceland. Anyone care to take a whack at translating the
narration into English for us?)
A
Translation, Contributed by Hordur Ingolfsson:
"Hi, saw you wanted translation of the narrative of
the A380 video shot in Iceland. This video was shot at Keflavik
international airport during “practice” landings.
Here goes the translation:
“Not every day we see the biggest passenger airplane
in the world land in Iceland, bla bla bla, but today the Airbus 380 was
practicing crosswind test landings at Keflavik Airport. Test conditions were
'ideal', with a steady wind blowing 35 to 45 knots. After only a short
stop, the aircraft went up again for repeated approach and test landings
that all ended happily. It was amazing to see how this big aircraft handled
took on the elements and such strong wind, weighing at about 5 times more
than B757 common in Keflavik airport, or 560.000 kilos. The A380 can
take up to 500-600 passengers, bla bla bla.” |
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Airliner Crash Home video of an airliner landing in a storm -- with disastrous results.
Additional
information about this crash, sent in by a viewer:
22 August 1999; China Airlines MD11; Hong Kong, China: This
aircraft was landing in Hong Kong at night and during a storm after a flight
from Bangkok. The aircraft struck the runway and came to rest upside down
and on fire. All 15 crew members survived, but three of the 300 passengers
were killed.
Click here to see a picture of the aftermath of this crash. |
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Airliner
Race! This fantastic, hilarious, award-winning video is all
digital. The dialogue is all in German, but that hardly seems to
matter.... |
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Air MidWest Flight 5481 Crash NTSB animation of the
departure crash of a Beech 1900 in Charlotte, N.C. on January 8, 2003. |
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American Flight 587 Crash NTSB animation of
this mystifying rudder failure accident over New York. |
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American
Flight 587 Toll-Booth Camera Toll booth camera footage
showing the crash of American Flight 587. |
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Bad
Landing Okay, I *know* this is fake -- but so many of you
guys keep sending it to me, I'm posting it here just to save you from
sending it again! |
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Bad Landing II I'll bet Alitalia
air lines *wishes* this landing was faked -- but it looks real to us.
Contributed by James Axelrad. |
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New 4/22/08
BAE-146 Bad Landing in London
This amazing video was contributed by Geno
Becker:
"For those who want to fly to London City
Airport, a cross wind adds to the excitement (in addition to the short
runway and steep approach). The airport itself is located on the river
Thames in downtown London, and gives business people very quick access to
the city. The Millennium Dome is in the left side of the picture."
"The runway is only 1199 meters long, which is
very short in airline runway terms, thus it is only suitable for aircraft
with good STOL (short take-off and landing) performance. It also has a 5.5
degree glide slope, as opposed to the conventional 3 degree slope to most
runways. The BAE 146 is the main jet type to operate into the place. Most
other aircraft are turbo props etc."
"When doing the approach you have to be fully
configured, i.e., gear down, full flaps and speed brakes before you commence
descent from 3000 feet...or you won't get stopped before reaching the far
end of the runway. If it doesn't look or feel right it is generally a good
idea to give it away and have another attempt. For whatever reason, this
flight crew decided to press, but they DID make the first turn off the
runway. If nothing else, it's a testament to the toughness of the BAE 146
airframe. The pilots handled it like a dirtbike!" |
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Boeing 767
Accident A TACA 767 comes to grief after landing hot and long
on a rain-soaked runway. Filmed from INSIDE the plane... |
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China Air Fire
In what is surely the slowest response to an airliner fire every video-taped
at a major airport, watch in horror as an airliner is nearly consumed by
fire while parked at the gate before firefighters respond.
Contributed by Jeff Miller |
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Concorde's First
Flight It's hard to believe that this lovely and advanced
aircraft no longer graces the skies. Re-live 1969, when men landed on
the moon and we thought we could do *anything*. Submitted by Roy
Meister |
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Concorde's
First Flights With BBC commentary and an interview with
pilot Brian Trubshaw. Submitted by Roy Meister. |
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Constellation 1953 -- Part I This fascinating
(but immense -- it's a huge download) video offers a window into the airline
world, circa 1953. It was filmed with TV and radio personality Arthur
Godfrey acting as "tour guide" flying an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed
Constellation, and features World War I ace (and Eastern Air Lines
president) Eddie Rickenbacker flying a Spad. (And check out the meals
the passengers are being served!) (Note:
This video plays best if you right-click and download it to your own
computer -- then play it using RealPlayer.) |
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Constellation 1953 -- Part II This fascinating
(but immense -- it's a huge download) video offers a window into the airline
world, circa 1953. Filmed with TV and radio personality Arthur Godfrey
acting as "tour guide" flying an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Constellation,
it features flying an ILS (Instrument Landing System) approach, a GCA
(Ground Control Approach), breaking the sound barrier in a Lockheed F-94
Starfire (piloted by none other than Tony Levier), and Eastern Air Lines
president Eddie Rickenbacker talking about the coming "helicopter feeder
lines" that will make getting to the airport simple!
(Note: This video plays best if you right-click and
download it to your own computer -- then play it using RealPlayer.) |
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Constellation --
1990 This video shows the graceful
"Save-A-Connie" Super Constellation coming in to land at an airshow in
Oklahoma City on Father's Day, 1990. Filmed and contributed by JB
Duncan. |
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Crash Compilation
This is a slide show of (mostly airline) crashes over the years, set to
music. Quite interesting. Contributed by Max Barz. |
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Cross Wind
Landings! This video shows certification tests for
various Boeing airliners. With Portuguese subtitles. |
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Cross Wind
Landings 2 With many thanks
to video editor Jon Salmon, this is the same video as "Cross Wind Landings!"
but without the subtitles, and with new (and vastly
improved!) background music added. |
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Cross
Wind Landings 3 Okay, so we've created a little cottage
industry here! With many thanks to video editor Steve Lyons,
this is the same video as "Cross Wind Landings!" (above), but without the
subtitles and with the ORIGINAL background music (which many of you like
better than "Top Gun", apparently...).
Many viewers have expressed interest in the
unique music on this video. Here is new information, provided by
Charlie Hanna:
"The background song with the 'Cross Wind
Landings' video is "Return To Innocence" by Enigma, it came out sometime in
2001. I got lucky and stumbled onto it, I love that song."
Info about
this music, from Michael McEuen: "I'm
one of the many that love these extraordinary videos, (Cross Wind Landings).
I'm also a really big fan of this site. You have went to great lengths to
provide a real cool site of aviation videos both good and bad. I noted a
update by Charlie Hanna about the music "Return to Innocence." With all due
respect to the help Mr. Hanna is trying to offer, he is wrong about the
release date of 2001. I do believe his date was referring to the movie
"Return to Innocence", which was released in 2001. It can also be
found on the very first "Pure Moods" CD dated 1994. It can be viewed @
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Innocence " |
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Crosswind
Landings 4 Another great compilation of crosswind
landings, with some new ones thrown in. |
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DC-3
on a Grass Strip This video shows a Douglas DC-3
painted in Piedmont Airlines livery landing on the grass at Ferrell's Fly-In
on Lake Norman. Contributed by Ken Roberts (and others).
Added Info from Eric
Schmidt, of the Carolinas Aviation Museum, Charlotte, NC:
"I love that video of a DC-3 on a grass strip. I recognized it
right away. It was built in '42 as a C-47 and sold right after the war
as surplus. It stayed with several companies and then, in the late
'70s, was bought by Piedmont Airlines, who had it converted to a DC-3, as
seen on the video. They used it for PR, incentive flights and employee
excursions. Piedmont wanted a DC-3 since that's what they started the
airline with. When US Airways bought them out, of course they didn't
want it and put it on the market. Thanks to the generosity of many
people we bought it and still fly it to air shows as shown." |
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DC-3 Radical Departure
If this is legit, is looks like the DC-3 sends the cameraman sprawling!
Anyone know what's happening here? |
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Ditching At Sea A hijacked airliner runs out of gas and is
caught on video. |
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Extreme Landing! A Boeing 747 doing things no
one ever envisioned... |
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FedEx 24 Hour Ops
This amazing video shows the radar track of every FedEx flight in America
over a 24 hour period. Remarkable!
Click
here for a link to the fabulous instrumental rendition of Led Zeppelin's
"Going to California" that accompanies this video! |
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FedEx Diversions
This remarkable video graphically shows the radar track of hundreds of
planes that were forced to divert around intense thunderstorms in the
Memphis area. |
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FedEx Flight 647 This NTSB animation
shows details of the crash of FedEx Flight 647 on December 18, 2003 in
Memphis, Tennessee. |
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FedEx
Flight 647 Evacuation Amateur video showing the crew
shinnying down the escape rope as the plane burns, following the landing
accident on December 18, 2003. |
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FedEx Flight 1478 A highly detailed NTSB
animation of a landing crash that occurred July 26, 2002, in Tallahassee,
Florida. |
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Ilyushin-76
Using It All Airliners usually use no more than
2/3rds of the runway to take off. Watch in amazement as this
fully-loaded Russian cargo jet takes off on a hot, calm Australian day --
and uses every last inch of runway!
New Info From Michelle Robertson
2/22/08:
"The video 'Illushin Using It All'
was taken from the control tower at Canberra Airport (in Australia) -- which
from memory is 1888 feet MSL. Interestingly, they have now extended
the end of the runway that the plane is taking off towards by another 400
meters I believe. To allow even take-offs with a 5 hour fuel load on a
100 degree day!" |
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Landing Gear Trouble On 9/22/05, a JetBlue Airbus pilot couldn't get his nose gear to rotate
into landing position. This video of the safe and successful landing
at Los Angeles International airport shows the best possible outcome to
every passenger's worst nightmare.
Click here to view several
remarkable, high-res photos of the aftermath of this and another VERY
similar landing. Although
Airbus may not make the most reliable nose-gear system in the world, it's
certainly TOUGH.
Click here to read
expert commentary on this unusual problem. |
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LAX Runway 24 Close Call Watch
and listen to an NTSB animation that reconstructs a 747 that is cleared to
land on Rwy 24 -- the same runway that another jet liner is about to depart
from!
New 3/28/08 Comments from
Tim Laity:
"I was once an air traffic controller and this
video attributed a mistake made by the air traffic controller that in fact
was never made. According to the narrative included with the video,
the departing aircraft is cleared for takeoff at the same time another
inbound aircraft is cleared for landing on the same runway. Upon listening
to the ATC instructions on the video it seems clear the departing 737 is
cleared for takeoff on runway 24 "LEFT" while the inbound 747 is cleared to
land on runway 24 "RIGHT" - clearly not the same runway."
"The inbound pilot acknowledges the landing
clearance and apparently failed to discern the difference between left and
right. It was not a controller error in this particular instance.
Simultaneous landings and departures on adjacent runways are routine in
larger airports and well within FAA guidelines. Thank you for looking into
this one." New
4/25/08 Comments from Doug Packer: "Tim Laity wrote that this
was NOT controller error…which may still be true, but he says the controller
clearly cleared the 747 to land on 24 RIGHT. If you listen, the
controller cleared a UNITED to land on 24 RIGHT and gave a “heavy 747 on
short final” warning (which was Asiana), but we never heard the landing
clearance for the ASIANA 747 that actually was involved in the near miss."
"He’s correct that landing aircraft in LAX use 24 Right and departing
aircraft use 24 Left, but in this video we never hear which one Asiana is
cleared for, or which one he read back. Unfortunately, we just don’t know
from this short clip who is at fault here." |
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National Airspace Depiction This amazing Quicktime movie
shows flight path visualizations of all IFR flights into and out of the
United States from 3/19 to 3/21/2005. It was created by Scott Hessels
and Gabriel Dunne. Click
here
to see their amazing website. |
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National
Airspace Depiction 2 This amazing Quicktime movie shows
the same flight path visualization as the National Airspace Depiction
video, above, but plots the individual aircraft as individual points. It was
created by Scott Hessels and Gabriel Dunne. Click
here
to see their amazing website. |
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Russian
Airliner Crash Actually a military transport, this crash
happened in early 2006 during a failed emergency landing, apparently
made necessary after ingesting birds into the engine(s). |
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Russian Airliner Crash - Long Version This
is a longer version of the 2006 crash of the Russian aircraft in the
Ukraine, showing a plume of smoke emerging from one of the engines as it
explodes just before rotation. |
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St. Martin Airport Video of this
world-famous resort, with it's world-famous airport. The runway
literally ends at the beach -- and they allow sunbathers to lay in the
approach path of 747s! |
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Tegucigalpa, Honduras Scary Landing Many say that no
airlines would land at this airport were it not the capital of Honduras.
This video shows why. Read more about it here:
http://gc.kls2.com/airport/TGU
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TU-144 Crash
Black & white video of the famous Soviet "Concordski" -- a Concorde
supersonic airliner clone that tragically crashed at the Paris Airshow in
1973. Submitted by Roy Meister. |
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TU-144 Maneuvering Before
The Crash Color footage of some of the radical maneuvering
the Soviet pilot accomplished before ultimately crashing at the 1973 Paris Air
Show. Submitted by Roy Meister. |
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TU-144 Tour
NASA footage showing a factory tour of the Soviet TU-144 "Concordski".
(NASA briefly contracted with Russia to use the TU-144 for research
flights.) Submitted by Roy Meister |
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