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Video captures pilot landing plane sideways in fierce winds

Footage of a plane landing in high winds at Chicago's O'Hare airport shows a landing that, to the average passenger, must have seemed unusual, if not scary.

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A plane lands sideways. How many passengers held their breath? Michael Rusch/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

You're seated in 4A.

You're landing at Chicago's O'Hare airport and you get the distinct impression that the pilot isn't flying the plane in a straight line.

In fact, it looks to you that you're going sideways. In fact, you are going sideways.

Footage first released by ABC 7 in Chicago shows a plane landing on Thursday, with its pilot appearing to maneuver the plane against the reported 40 mph winds.

Like a human being bracing himself against the wind while walking down a street, this plane descends at a sideways angle until the very last moments.

Indeed, it lands at what appears to be 45-degree angle, before straightening up.

I am confident that those who pilot planes will sniff that this is merely normal procedure.

But the millions who fly around the world every day as passengers will perhaps look at this footage and marvel just a little at the control exerted over a large machine in order to achieve a safe landing.

Indeed, Wendy Prindle, a commenter on the YouTube footage, offered: "I think that i was the flight attendant on that flight! Ive had some pretty windy landings lately at all airports! Thanks for the fantastic Pilots we are all sAAfe."