Hairiest landing ever

Ever been on a plane at night, on final approach for a landing in a driving thunderstorm,  with almost no visibility? 

In 2003, I was on a flight from Sydney, Australia to Port Vila, the capitol of the island nation of Vanuatu. I was headed there to produce a segment for the documentary I was working on at that time. It was called, The Hydrogen Age.  More about that part of my Vanuatu adventure on another day.  This entry is an account of the craziest, most scary approach and landing I have ever experienced.

Vanuatu is 1500 miles Northeast of Sydney.  I was traveling aboard an Air Vanuatu 737 turbojet.   After just over three hours flight time, we began our descent into the airport at Port Vila on Efate, the main island of the Vanuatu island group.

As we descended in the darkness, the ride became decidedly more bumpy. I was in an aisle seat, but I could see lightning flashing below and ahead.  The cabin lights had been dimmed for landing. As our descent continued, we soon found ourselves immersed in thunder, lightning, and driving rain.  The turbulence was pretty extreme. The general feeling in the passenger cabin was unsettled to say the least.

Up front, the flight crew were Qantas veterans.  I recall hearing one of the pilots come on the plane's PA system.  He said something like, "No worries, folks. A bit of bad weather here. Hang on, we'll be on the ground in about ten minutes."    His calm voice provided scant reassurance.

The next few minutes were seriously scary. The rain and lightning were with us all the way down.  Water was flowing over the windows as the landing gear was deployed.  Except for frequent lightning flashes, it was still pitch black outside.  Still plenty of buffeting.  Finally, the 737 touched down. It was carrying extra speed, the thrust reversers came on and stayed on as the aircraft slowed.

At that point, our brush with terror was over. Minutes later, as I headed up the aisle to deplane, I came on the two Aussie pilots.  They were heroes to the passengers. I said to them, "Nice work."   The captain smiled, "Day at the office, mate."


Here is an interesting  cockpit video of an Air Vanuatu 737 flight from Port, Vila, Vanuatu to Sydney, Australia....  
 http://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/fly-low-and-fast-180956560/?utm_source=airandspacenewsletter&no-ist