American Boeing 737 blown around in wind

Video footage has emerged of an American Airlines Boeing 737-800 being blown around shortly before 2AM this morning, while parked at a gate at Dallas Fort Worth Airport (DFW).

In the video circulating widely online, which seems to be taking from security camera footage, you can see the parked jet connected to a jet bridge with its door open (though it’s my understanding that the plane wasn’t occupied at the time of the incident). The plane then starts to move due to wind gusts — it turns sharply to the right, and in the end comes to a stop at a nearly 90 degree angle to its initial position.

According to the National Weather Service, winds at the airport maxed out at just under 80 miles per hour (or around 130 kilometers per hour), so those are pretty significant gusts.

Can incidents like this be prevented?

There’s no need for an investigation into what happened, because some patriots have already figured it out. Obviously this incident happened due to DEI at Boeing. D’oh.

In all honesty, there are a few interesting aspects to this video. For one, it’s noteworthy how much loose ground equipment there is at the airport. Were winds that strong just not anticipated, or does DFW just not have a procedure for this kind of stuff, in the event of a storm?

While beyond my area of expertise, it’s my understanding that most airlines are supposed to have a plan for high wind situations, as we see here. At least at some airlines, that includes triple chocking the gear, to maximize the odds of the jet staying in place. Best I can tell in the video, it looks like there were no chocks on the wheels. I’m not sure if the chocks flew away, or what exactly happened there.

It’s also my understanding that fueling the aircraft can help to stabilize it in this situation, to give it more weight. However, that can also be hard to plan for at a major hub.

The silver lining here is that best I can tell, the aircraft didn’t sustain any damage, and the wing didn’t quite hit the jet bridge. Had that happened, this would have been a much more significant issue.

Bottom line

An American Boeing 737 went on a bit of an adventure at DFW early this morning, as the jet started spinning due to strong winds. This happens every so often, and it’s always quite a visaul to see a jet of this size moving due to wind.