After dozens of flights were canceled across London’s major airports, more than 200,000 people tuned in to watch a livestream on YouTube of planes landing at London’s Heathrow Airport.
The aircraft were seen battling strong gusts as they came into land, some of them wobbling mid-air, others skidding from side to side once they hit the runway.
The video, on the Big Jet TV channel, was accompanied by comical commentary by presenter Jerry Dyer, who kept viewers entertained by offering words of encouragement to the pilots, at one point saying: “Come on mate, you can do it!”
Avgeek Dyer’s Big Jet TV YouTube channel was trending on social media, reaching number two on Twitter in the UK, with one of his trademark phrases as planes hit the ground, “bosh,” at number three.
As Dyer tracked a Qatar Airways A380 making two balked landings and coming in for a third and final time — which was successful — more than 230,000 people were watching his livestream from a field outside the airport.
Separately, over 53,000 people were tracking the plane’s route on Flight Radar 24 as it circled the UK capital while attempting to land.
Dyer’s website even crashed as thousands tried to follow him.
Dyer, who lives near Heathrow, does a livestream from Heathrow every Wednesday, but rushes to the airport to film every time there’s bad weather, he told CNN earlier this month, when his video of a British Airways plane seemingly striking the ground with its tail as it performed a balked landing went viral.
But his livestream of Storm Eunice has made it far beyond his usual avgeek crowd.
Chelsea Football Club tweeted about his feed, as did Netflix, while UK TV channel Dave jokingly offered him a prime time show.
Meanwhile, social media was full of Dyer’s catchphrases: “fair play,” “easy, son,” and “go on then,” with his cheeky persona endearing him to thousands.
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