Hacker News Reader

Comment by Waterluvian | Hacker News Reader

Are these airliners safe during a storm? Do they tie them down in some way when on the runway? I mean I guess that's why they're in the desert. But the question still stands in a hypothetical context. Do jetliners survive massive storms on the runway?

View on HN

They aren’t tied down, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that they get fueled up to weigh them down more

Storms wouldn't cause a problem. These planes travel through air at 800km/h, a storm with 100km/h winds is nothing.

Yeah, but they don't travel sideways and they have pilots.

I just cannot for the life of me stop laughing at the image this evoked. Just 400 planes sliding sideways across the desert as pilots are chasing after them on foot.

> Storms wouldn't cause a problem. These planes travel through air at 800km/h, a storm with 100km/h winds is nothing.

These craft are designed for lift. High winds can make planes "take off" while stationary. Not sure it's a problem for planes this size, but it's definitely a problem for smaller planes.

The stall speed for something small like a Cessna 172 is in the ballpark of 60 mph, so those definitely need to be strapped down if there's a chance of even a simple severe thunderstorm. But for something like a Boeing 737, stall speed is more like 125-150 mph (depending on flaps configuration). If surface winds that high are a real possibility, airlines will do their best to relocate the planes, because there are too many ways they can be severely damaged even without taking off while stationary.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com