Patrick Smith, a US pilot and author of Cockpit Confidential explains that the correct landing technique is “a slightly skewed alignment, with one set of tyres hitting the ground before the other.”

British Airways pilot Mark Vanhoenacker agrees (well, you’d hope so). “When a plane is landing in a crosswind, pilots will commonly aim the plane into the wind, a manoeuvre that will ensure that the aeroplane’s path over the ground takes it directly to the runway,” he says. “This technique is effective but challenging.

Which is why it takes a bit of practice. BA trains its pilots to land in high winds every six months. Captain Dave Thomas, head of flight technical and training at the airline, says that the difficulty of landing in high winds depends on both wind speed and direction. Our writer Lucy Aspden was a passenger on a plane that was attempting to land during Storm Dudley earlier this week. Read her account here.

Some pilots will resort to a ‘baulked landing’

In an ideal world, the pilot wants to land into the wind and in the centre of the runway. If there’s a tricky cross wind they will approach with the nose of the plane facing the wind. Just as the pilot performs the “flare” – designed to slow the descent rate – he or she will bring the plane’s nose in line with the runway.

If this manoeuvre is performed too early, “the aeroplane won’t land in the centre of the runway – or on the runway at all,” says Captain Thomas. If the pilot isn’t happy with their first effort, he or she will abort the landing and try again. In what is known as a “baulked landing”, the plane might even touch the runway first.

In the most severe conditions, a ‘wingstrike’ may occur

A “wingstrike” is when a wing hits the runway. It doesn’t happen often, although one notable incident took place in 2008, when a Lufthansa A320 tried to land at Hamburg Airport amid gusts of up to 47 knots (54mph). The footage on YouTube is excruciating, but no one was hurt and the plane eventually touched down on another runway.

A phenomenon known as ‘wind shear’ poses a risk

‘Wind shear’ is a sudden change in wind speed and/or direction, causing turbulence or a rapid increase or decrease in velocity. A tricky scenario might see a pilot attempting to land into a headwind that suddenly turns into a tailwind. The result? Landing late and fast, and potentially overshooting the runway.

Airbus says wind shear is the main cause of four per cent of “approach and landing” accidents, such as the crash of the Delta Flight 191 in 1985. A loss of 54 knots of air speed in a matter of seconds saw the plane hit the ground about a mile short of the runway; 137 lives were lost. This was one of several incidents that led the Federal Aviation Administration, the US equivalent of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), to rule that all commercial planes must be fitted with a wind shear detection and alert system. The CAA does not currently make the same demands of UK operators.

Captain Thomas says that wind shear may cause a pilot to break off a landing at around 3,000ft: “It’s the right thing to do – put the power on and get up and out of there.”

Pilots always have a plan B in mind if the intended approach is not safe or if the airport closes because of high winds. For landing in Washington DC, for example, the BA pilot knows he could divert to Baltimore or Boston. Updates on wind and weather conditions are communicated to crew throughout a journey to help with decision making.

There are maximum wind speeds planes can fly in

To curtail the dangers posed by strong winds, manufacturers issue limits for maximum ground speeds, air speeds and cross speeds in which a plane can operate, based on “analytical computations and simulations”. For example, the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet, was designed to cope with crosswinds of 35 knots at take-off and 40 knots when landing.

According to the CAA, however, the pilot decides whether a landing is safe – based on experience, not algorithms.

The CAA does enforce detailed weather reporting regulations for UK airports, however – set out in a 119-page document that makes for gripping reading – and airports must also provide half-hourly reports describing conditions along the runway.

High winds are very unlikely to be fatal

High winds can make a flight uncomfortable, but are extremely unlikely to be fatal – they might even mean your holiday starts sooner. Strong tailwinds – and jet streams – can shave hours off a flight time. A BA flight nearly went supersonic in 2015 thanks to just that – flying from New York to London in just five hours and 16 minutes when the usual journey time is nearly seven hours.

Similarly, Qantas’ London to Perth service that launched in 2018 slashed its journey times after utilising strong northern winter winds, cutting time in the air from 17 hours and 20 minutes to closer to 16.

Some airports are more susceptible to high winds

While all eyes have been on Heathrow as Storm Eunice strikes London and the southeast of England, some airports are more susceptible to strong winds. Those flying into Leeds Bradford, the highest airport in Britain at 681 feet (208m), have seen their fair share of wobbly approaches.