Live coverage of planes trying – and often failing – to land at Heathrow in Storm Eunice’s 120mph gusts while commentated on by Britain’s most enthusiastic planespotter has become an online sensation and can be watched by MailOnline readers below.
Tens of thousands of people have spent hours watching stomach-churning footage streamed by Big Jet TV of airliners touching down almost sideways at Britain’s busiest airport.
And host Jerry Dyer’s dramatic commentary as planes were thrown around by the wind on approach – and his ecstasy as they came down, often on one wheel – thrilled the 130,000-plus people watching around the globe as Eunice peaked this afternoon.
It came as Storm Eunice laid waste to Britain’s transport infrastructure as its gusts ripped across the UK in a 16-hour blast. One gust on the Isle of Wight hit 122mph – provisionally the highest gust ever recorded in England. Aviation analytics firm Cirium said at least 436 flights to, from or within the UK were cancelled on Friday. The highest proportion was at Heathrow, where 20% of flights were cancelled. This was followed by London City (16%) and Manchester (10%).
Big Jet TV viewers were enthralled as Mr Dyer, a former interior designer from Sussex who started the YouTube channel in 2016, yelled over the wind ‘that is insane’, ‘go on my son’, ‘you beauty’, ‘bosh, get it down mate’ and ‘wallop’ as the jets touched down. On one occasion he sparked a flurry of tweets as he screamed: ‘Here come the Russians’ as an Aeroflot plane approached, a phrase which then began trending on Twitter.
Later he screamed: ‘The big daddy from Qatar is coming in’, sang Patsy Kline’s ‘Crazy’ when the winds peaked and promised viewers he would stay next to the runway filming until ‘Eunice stops’.
Speaking from the paddock next to Heathrow’s south runway, Mr Dyer, whose job appears to be going from airport-to-airport and streaming it on YouTube, told BBC Radio 2: ‘This is the best scenario you could possibly imagine – big kudos to the pilots and the crews working at the airports, this is the most exciting stuff you could possibly get.
‘Right now, these conditions with 70mph gusting winds, it’s pretty intense. And what is great is you get to see the skill of the pilot and how they manage to handle it’. And praising the pilots he said; ‘Although this is a lot of fun, don’t forget, it’s all about the pilots, they’ve got big cahoonas, you know. But the ladies… Obviously not’.
Big Jet TV captured the moment many of the jets were forced to make multiple attempts to land. One plane from Chicago had three tries before flying on to Geneva. One BA service from Edinburgh to Heathrow got all the way to London before turning back and returning to Scotland. A TAP Air Portugal flight from Athens was filmed making contact with the runway before the pilot lost his nerve and taking off again.
Other planes from Europe got to the south coast before turning back for their airport of origin as at least 20 planes tried and failed to land.
Hundreds of train and ferry services are cancelled, bridges and roads shut and 100-plus planes were grounded as major airlines including British Airways and easyJet axed flights. London City Airport is shut completely until 4.30pm at the earliest.
