A Lufthansa Airbus A320 passenger jet safely aborted a landing Saturday when winds blew its left wingtip into the ground at touchdown, according to Lufthansa spokeswoman Claudia Lange.

In addition to an unattributed internet video of the entire landing (below), photographer Lars Tretau captured stunning close-in photographs from a different angle which can be found here and here.

Winds were gusting up to 60 MPH at Hamburg airport during the landing attempt thanks to a European cyclone known as ‘Emma‘, which has already taken over a dozen lives in Germany in separate incidents.

The plane landed safely on its second attempt on a different runway after circling for about 10-15 minutes.

The pilot, only identified as “Oliver A.” 39, said in a statement:

“As we were about to touch down, a gust of wind pressed the left wing towards the ground, We pulled up immediately. A maneuver we practice in training very often.”

Lufthansa spokesman Wolfgang Weber added “the pilots reacted in an extremely professional manner…” , adding that many of the passengers “...did not handle it well…some were near tears.”

“It is hard to describe — it went very quickly” passenger Hansi Kuepper said on n-tv television. He said there was silence on board for several minutes after the incident.

Flight LH 044 originated in Munich and was co-piloted by “Maxi J.”, 24.

None of the 137 souls on board were injured. Amazingly, the plane was repaired and put back into service the next day.

You will notice that upon approach, the aircraft is lined up 30-45° to the runway - this is a deliberate pilot technique for landing in crosswind. Just prior to touchdown, the plane is straighted out, with the hopes that at this point ground effect will make better control possible.

The reason for this is that airplanes are designed to be stable in that face of wind, so if there is crosswind, the pilot wants to try to face the aircraft into the wind to maximize the effectiveness of the control surfaces.

In the video, as he turns the plane at the last moment for touchdown, the crosswinds severely tip the plane, and the left wing crashes into the ground. The pilot’s decision at this point is crucial - he slams the throttle to full power and gets back in the air, which is known as a go-around.