Terrifying moment Jet2 flight from UK aborts landing in Lanzarote after near tail strike

THIS is the hair-raising moment the pilot of a UK holiday jet dramatically decides to abort his landing as he touches down in Lanzarote.

Footage showed the plane suddenly veering upwards after its tail almost touches the ground.

The dramatic scenes occurred on Sunday as Jet2 flight LS11DF from Birmingham arrived at the Spanish island’s Cesar Manrique-Lanzarote Airport.

It was not immediately clear why the pilot had made his last-minute manoeuvre, known in aviation as a toga.

The plane ended up touching down around 15 minutes later around 7.30pm local time following a successful second attempt.

https://youtu.be/ig_mPlHgu_4?si=-TKSo4uD6_HaviuV

Lanzarote Webcam, which published the footage, said: “On Sunday we saw this nice touch and go-around with almost tail touch of Jet2 flight from Birmingham (LS11DF/EXS11DF) when it landed on the runway at Lanzarote Airport.”

One social media user responded: “That was pretty close to a tail strike. Wonder if that’s why it went back up.”

Another suggested: “He must have come in too fast and couldn't employ the spoilers.

“The nose went up and not down, was there a strong gust of wind.

“If that happens, then TOGA was the right call.

A third said: “Looks like a heavy crosswind changed direction at the last second or so raising the nose.

“Pilot didn’t fancy slamming the nose gear down from that height and chose a TOGA.

“Better couple of grand in fuel versus DOLLARS 100,000 in repairs.”

In March footage emerged showing a plane veering suddenly to the right as an intense gust of wind destabilised it just a few feet from the same runway.

The drama led to the commander making a split-second decision to execute a ‘toga' and lift the plane’s nose in the air to avoid disaster.

He successfully landed Binter flight NT556 at Cesar Manrique-Lanzarote Airport shortly afterwards during a second attempt as winds on the island reached around 55mph.

It was not immediately clear how many passengers were on the plane, which had taken off from the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria.

The spectacular display was also filmed by Lanzarote Webcam, which published the footage on its social media.

A spokesman said at the time: “Binter flight NT556 from Gran Canaria operating with registration EC-NGG was landing at Lanzarote airport in bad weather conditions, when it received a strong wind gust and put in grave danger the integrity of the plane.

“It's quite a sight to see how the pilots resolved the incident. Finally the plane landed at the second attempt without problems.

"We have decided to do this compilation because without doubt the pilots skills were essential to sort the problem without damages and left us a nice toga operation.

"Congratulations and great applause 👏 for the entire crew.”