Torrential rain in Perth from ex-Cyclone Joyce forces planes to abort landings at Perth Airport
Updated
Hundreds of airline passengers endured nervous moments on Monday as planes bound for Perth were forced to abort landings at the city's airport as an ex-tropical cyclone dumped more than four months' worth of rain on the city in 24 hours.
Almost 100 millimetres of rain was dumped on the city overnight as the remains of Cyclone Joyce tracked south over the city.
At least two services — Qantas flight 573 and Virgin Australia flight 470 — both from Brisbane, were forced to circle after initial landing attempts were thwarted by strong cross winds.
Both planes were lined up on the airport's shorter east-west cross runway but eventually landed on the main north-south runway.
The Qantas flight touched down on its third attempt. No-one was injured on either aircraft.
Passenger tells of 'horrifying' landing
Passenger Naomi Twyford was on board flight VA470 and said the aborted landing came as a surprise.
"We weren't far to touch down. Wheels were down and we weren't far off the ground," she said.
"And just at the last moment we took off again. He hit the accelerator and up we went.
"The pilot had warned us earlier that it was going to be a little bit bumpy coming into Perth, so he was definitely not having us on or exaggerating at all."
Ms Twyford described the situation as one of the scariest in her travelling experience.
"I fly that leg probably every fortnight," she said. "I'm in the air every 14 days. Whether it's to Sydney, or Melbourne, or LA, or New York.
"And that has been the bumpiest entry to an airport I've ever had. We were going left to right, and we were all pretty scared as we were taken back up."
Ms Twyford praised the actions of the pilot.
"He immediately came on air and told us what had happened and what we were going to do," she said.
"But he got us on the ground. And as you can imagine the plane just erupted into applause, because it was very, very scary up there.
"It was a pretty horrifying landing."
Wind gusts in excess of 60 kilometres per hour were recorded at Perth Airport late yesterday, and strong wind shear below 1,000 feet is believed to have caused problems for incoming and outgoing flights.
The State Emergency Service received more than 220 calls for help overnight, while the city officially recorded 96mm of rain — the wettest January day since 104mm fell on the city on January 22, 2000.
The system is expected to ease off this afternoon.
Topics: travel-health-and-safety, weather, perth-6000
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