Terrifying footage shows how planes arriving on the Greek island of Rhodes struggled to touchdown over the weekend, as strong winds rocked aircrafts from side to side, while another jet was forced to abort its landing.
A video clip shared on social media platform TikTok shows the moment one plane thudded into the runway on Saturday at Rhodes International Airport after gales violently jolted the passenger jet.
A separate video shows how a Lauda Air flight descending on the Greek holiday hotspot was forced to abort its landing after attempting to touchdown due to the extreme winds driven by a fierce storm.
Widespread travel chaos hit Greece over the weekend as a result of the severe winds.
Photos from inside Rhodes airport shared on social media showed dozens of exhausted passengers sitting on the floor as they faced flight cancellations.
One flight from Brussels to Rhodes was diverted to Athens due to the dangerous weather conditions, news outlet Avaitation24 reported.
Elsewhere in Crete, crosswinds forced mass delays at Heraklion Airport as pilots struggled to land safely.
According to the Hellenic National Meteorological Service, Greece’s national weather authority, a severe northeasterly weather front origination from the Tunisian coast moved into the eastern Mediterranean.
Terrifying footage shows the moment one plane thudded into the runway on Saturday at Rhodes International Airport after gales violently jolted the passenger jet
Widespread travel chaos hit Greece over the weekend as a result of the severe winds
It comes as Paris Orly Airport was plunged into chaos over the weekend after the breakdown of a control tower, forcing the cancellation of 130 flights.
Thousands of passengers were left scrambling for alternative travel routes on Sunday after the airport suffered a ‘failure in their air traffic control systems,’ according to officials.
A spokesman for Aeroports de Paris, which operates the French capital’s second busiest airport, said about 40 percent of the day’s departures and arrivals had been called off.
Passengers hoping to travel to destinations including Spain, Italy, Austria and Germany were left stranded after experiencing flight cancellations, while others endured lengthy delays.
France’s DGAC civil aviation authority blamed the ‘significant’ reduction in flight numbers on ‘a failure of the air traffic control systems’ that had taken place at the Orly tower early yesterday afternoon.
Photos from inside Rhodes airport shared on social media showed dozens of exhausted passengers sitting on the floor as they faced flight cancellations
Meanwhile, an aviation source revealed that the chaos at the travel hub had been caused by a radar breakdown.
The airport spokesman said about half of the 130 cancelled flights were departures, while half had been incoming flights.
