A German passenger jet carrying 137 people has had a narrow escape in an incident reminiscent of the Heathrow crash landing in January.
Gale-force crosswinds tilted the Lufthansa plane around 30 degrees as its wheels touched down at Hamburg Airport, causing one wing to hit the runway.
Amateur footage of the accident that emerged this morning showed the A320 from Munich wheeling wildly across the runway, before the pilot abandoned the landing and took off again.
"Those few seconds were indescribable," one passenger told German television station N-TV, after the plane landed successfully at the second attempt.
The airline has paid tribute to the pilot, a 39-year-old named as Oliver A, for keeping his head as the 155mph winds buffeted the plane. The gales are part of the storm system Emma that has been causing damage across central Europe
"He was braced for a difficult landing and quickly brought the situation under control," the Lufthansa spokesman said.
"The damage was not as bad as we expected. The wing was damaged but it could be repaired."
A flight safety expert told the website of the German magazine Der Spiegel that the near-accident was unique in German aviation history.
"It's extreme - I haven't yet seen anything like that at a German airport," Axel Raab said.
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