An Emirates A380 Airbus, the World’s largest passenger carrying airliner was forced to abort landing and ‘go around' TWICE as it came into approach at Birmingham’s BHX International Airport during Storm Pia gale-force crosswinds.

The flight, from Dubai to Birmingham initially approached the runway before pilots made a last second decision to abort, just feet away from touchdown on Thursday 21 December.

When the plane came around for its second approach, the crew decided to abort yet again, although this time they were high above the airport.

The aircraft then went into a holding pattern at 8000ft above Bromsgrove and Redditch as they talked to the tower on the ground about the wind speed and asked if any other planes had successfully landed in the meantime.

It took approximately 45 minutes for the pilots to make up their minds about trying for a third time, although they had a back-up plan if they couldn’t make it as they secured a landing slot at Gatwick Airport.

As the huge fuselage lined up for its third approach, the winds eased a bit however the wings still flexed but the pilots had enough skill to touchdown safely.

The flight which was scheduled to land at 11:40 was approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes late, it took exactly an hour from its first attempt to its eventual touchdown whilst it burned through it’s fuel reserves and it was already 20 minutes late approaching Birmingham due to flying against the wind.