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What wind is unsafe to fly?

With this in mind, horizontal winds (also known as “crosswinds”) in excess of 30-35 kts (about 34-40 mph) are generally prohibitive of take-off and landing. As far as how this happens, it depends on where you are in flight.



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There is no single maximum wind speed that cancels flights, as it depends on the direction of wind and phase of flight. A crosswind above about 40mph and a tailwind above 10mph can start to cause problems and stop commercial jets from taking off and landing.

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Absolutely. Pretty much any airplane can easily fly in 25 mph winds. If that is a direct crosswind that might make landing smaller aircraft more challenging, but airliners, no problems.

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Many airplanes have limitations on the amount of crosswind that is allowed for takeoff and landing. In the case of some airliners, it's around 40kts or about 45mph or 21 Mps. A 15 mph tailwind is good. A 15 mph headwind is not so good, but is usually no big deal.

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If there is a tail wind of 10mph from behind, then the aircraft needs to be going 80mph (ie 70mph relative speed for those conditions) to get airborne. Similarly, if you are taking off into a 10mph headwind, then you only need to be going 60mph to fly.

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There is no single maximum wind limit as it depends on the direction of wind and phase of flight. A crosswind above about 40mph and tailwind above 10mph can start to cause problems and stop commercial jets taking off and landing. It can sometimes be too windy to take-off or land.

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There is no single maximum wind limit as it depends on the direction of wind and phase of flight. A crosswind above about 40mph and tailwind above 10mph can start to cause problems and stop commercial jets taking off and landing. It can sometimes be too windy to take-off or land.

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When an aircraft experiences turbulence, the plane can drop or change altitude suddenly. This is why pilots always caution passengers to buckle up and stay seated when they are experiencing flight turbulence. The sudden movements put passengers at risk.

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Severe turbulence can cause a plane to drop so suddenly that pilots temporarily lose control. But, again, that's not enough to crash the plane. That's not to say it's never happened. In 1966, human error and turbulence combined to bring a plane down over Mount Fuji.

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From a practical point, no, a modern airliner will not lose a wing due to turbulence. Modern airlines are very tough and designed to withstand extreme turbulence. In theory, it might be possible. But to my knowledge, it has not happened to any jet airliner.

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