Would you continue the approach if you saw this weather between you and the runway?
Stormy weather flying recalls the saying that there are old pilots, there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.
In particular, landing during severe weather is considerably the most dangerous choice. The aircraft is slow, low, and most vulnerable to bad weather during this phase of flight.
Commercial pilots must balance safety with maintaining a schedule. Aborting a landing in the case of severe weather either means circling the airport until the all-clear is given, or being diverted to another location. While either option is safe, delays are always a hassle for the airline, the crew, and its passengers.
In spite of all the modern instrumentation in a cockpit, a landing requires visual sighting of the runway. You don’t land blind.
Even with a severe rainstorm dead ahead, this pilot of a Fokker F100 appears hell-bent-for-leather when it comes to this approach/landing at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia. It’s probably a good thing the passengers couldn’t see what the crew could. While procedures vary at different operators, it is not typical to fly directly into a rain shaft of a thunderstorm, where the likelihood of a severe wind shear is high. The stormy conditions were confirmed visually and backed up by the weather radar. While we’re glad they landed safely, we are more than excited to have not been on that flight in the first place.