I'm a pilot – here is what REALLY happens when we try and land the plane during a storm | The Sun

A PILOT has revealed what really happens in their cockpit when a storm prevents a plane from landing.

It is not uncommon for aircraft to have to circle around an airport while waiting for bad weather to pass.

With planes able to fly above storms, they are generally safe places to be when conditions are bad, and flight schedules aren't affected much by thunder and lightning.

However, there is still a lot of decision making that goes on in the plane's cockpit, to ensure everyone remains safe.

After one of her flights from Saint Louis to Chicago had to return to Saint Louis because of bad weather, a pilot who goes by the name @almostcaptainmorgan on Tiktok explained the process for making the decision to turn back.

In a video she explained: "Something I get asked all the time as an airline pilot is what do planes do when there's bad weather at an airport and we can't land. That happened today."

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She explained that the go to solution is to circle around the airport while waiting for the bad weather to clear. However, that isn't always a suitable option.

She continued: "We have to do something called 'hold and wait'.

"Chicago wanted us to hold for over and hour and we only had enough gas to last us for around 30 minutes, that's not going to work."

Using a messaging system, pilots are able to communicate with airports, to come up with other choices in order to make sure the plane avoids both the storm and running out of fuel.

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Although Morgan had to return to the city she had set off from, the plane was able to refuel and complete the journey it was originally supposed to, without passengers having to get off.

She said: "We used our text messaging system to talk to dispatch and came up with a plan to return to Saint Louis.

"Now the worst of the weather has moved past Chicago, so we're going to do what's called a 'gas and go'.

"This means all the passengers stay on the plane, we get enough fuel to go back to Chicago and we try again."

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Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people tuned in to a Youtube channel to watch planes land at Heathrow during a storm earlier this year.

This pilot landed a plane during a storm, despite hail stones ripping a hole in the nose of the aircraft.

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