The importance of stability during landing

Introduction
Yes, we have seen all those crazy landings like when an airplane landed safely without landing gear deployed. We have also seen those videos on YouTube named: "Scary crosswind landings..." Well, guess what. They don't look as fun as they are. In the cockpit, the pilots could be sweating, shouting, or maybe even having a heart attack. (No, I'm not joking)

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Does this directly affect me?
Yes, stability during a landing is key. A very improper "bad" landing could lead to aircraft damage, fatalities and other bad things. Imagine you were sitting inside a modern jet, let's say a Boeing 737. You know that it is the most sold jet in the world, and you also know how safe it is. Then you fell the jet swing from left to right, like a swing swinging. You suddenly feel queasy, and suddenly the plane shakes like an earthquake was happening. The pilots are struggling to stabilize and slow down the aircraft. The engines are set to reverse thrust, which basically means that they start screaming. After what feels like hours, the plane slows down.You feel relieved, the butterflies are gone. Then you suddenly get thrown around in your seat, and the captain goes: "Hello, this is your captain speaking. We have overrun the runway and have nearly crashed into a house. Thank you for flying with our airline. Have a good day."

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The scenarios
An unstable landing has many bad scenarios. Unfortunately, there just aren't a lot of good ones. Here are some examples: .
 * Runway overrun (example above)
 * Aborted landing
 * Fatalities
 * Aircraft damage (sever &/or not sever)
 * Landing gear force exceed (meaning the landing gears break upon impact which usually guarantees passenger injuries or fatalities and aircraft damage
 * Extreme passenger discomfort
 * Flying objects and debris in the cabin
 * The plane lands too early on runway, the tail snaps off and boom goes the airplane (Asiana Flight 214)
 * And a lot more of them

And now, for some good examples: .
 * Guess what? I can't think of any. Unless getting hurt counts as one.130708235908-ac-asiana-crash-latest-simon-pkg-00015126-story-top.jpg

The picture on the right shows Asiana 214, an unstable landing

which caused the Boeing 777 to be destroyed.

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But don't worry...
But don't worry. It is very unlikely for you to be involved in a plane crash, so it is obviously safe to fly to your dream location for a vacation! (That rhymes!) You don't have to be worried about an unstable landing, because nowadays pilots are very well trained to abort a landing when needed or fly to another destination near the place you were trying to fly to.

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Is flying really the safest mean of transportation?
Yes. Statistically, traveling by plane is safer than walking, driving, biking, motorcycling and all the other means of transport. So you can feel relieved that your next flight to your next destination will be a smooth one.