When the Aopa Air Safety Institute classifies accidents for analyses such as the Nall Report, the “weather” category actually excludes the one meteorological phenomenon responsible for the most bent aluminum: wind. Wind-driven accidents usually are failures of either skill (getting pushed off the runway by a “gust”) or judgment (taking on crosswinds beyond the pilot's and/or airplane’s capabilities). Since the pilot decides when to fly and where to go, problems coping with prevailing winds fit in those categories related to planning and technique, chiefly takeoffs, landings, and go-arounds.
The majority of these accidents are more embarrassing than dangerous. Runway excursions are the most common. Wing tips, gear, and propellers typically sustain the brunt of the punishment, while properly harnessed pilots escape unhurt. But not all wind-related accidents are benign. Too great a gulf between capabilities and actual conditions can render an aircraft uncontrollable.
In May 2011, the pilot of a Cessna 172—low on fuel after getting lost, and carrying three passengers—tried to land in a direct crosswind gusting to 28 knots. Witnesses saw it approach in an extreme crab, touching down “multiple times, and flying down the runway sideways with the nose pointing into the wind.” The pilot finally went around, only to stall into the ground during the crosswind turn.
In March 2013, a Mooney pilot took off on a day the winds were really howling: 33 knots with gusts to 47, perpendicular to the runway. He had three passengers—his girlfriend, her sister, and his 13-year-old niece. When a lineman suggested he postpone the flight, he replied that he didn’t think the wind would be a problem. He couldn’t have been more wrong. The Mooney never climbed above 100 feet before pitching down and crashing nose-first. And the following December, the pilot of a Husky attempted a wrong-direction takeoff from a one-way mountain field rather than hazard a tailwind gusting to 23 knots. The airplane stalled as he tried to turn away from the hills just off the far end of the runway.
These decisions cost the lives of seven passengers, plus those of the pilots who made them. Don’t let the mildness of most wind accidents confuse the issue. The question is not whether too much wind will hurt you a lot or just a little. The question is simply whether it’s too much.
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