A terrifying landing attempt at London's Heathrow Airport has left aviation enthusiasts stunned after a British Airways aircraft appeared to scrape its
tail against the runway before taking off again. The dramatic sequence, captured on a live camera feed, shows the pilots aborting the landing and performing an emergency manoeuvre known as a go-around. The incident involved British Airways flight BA431, which was travelling from Amsterdam to London on Thursday. The Airbus A321neo was approaching Terminal 5 at Heathrow at around 10.30 am when the landing attempt went wrong, as per a Daily Mail report. Footage of the incident shows the aircraft swaying from side to side as it descended towards the runway. Its left landing wheel touched the ground first, followed by the right wheel. Moments later, the rear section of the aircraft appeared to strike the runway surface twice, resulting in what is known as a double tail strike. The pilots then abandoned the landing and climbed back into the air. The aircraft appeared to lean slightly to the left as it gained altitude and moved away from the runway. Flight BA431 subsequently made another landing attempt and touched down safely at around 10.49 am. WATCH | Dramatic landing attempt caught on camera The footage was captured by aviation livestreaming channel BigJet TV, which shared the clip on X (formerly Twitter). "Caught live on our 24/7 Camera BA431 encountered a double tail strike upon landing at Heathrow Airport this morning. What happened here?" the channel wrote. The clip also went massively viral on social media, with the tweet garnering over 5 million views and scaring the internet. According to Daily Mail, the aircraft's landing attempt took place amid north-westerly winds at Heathrow, with gusts reaching approximately 16 kmph (10 mph).
British Airways has since launched an investigation into the incident.
