I’ve seen videos of a lot of rough landings in my life, though I’ve never seen anything quite like this.
In this post:
Reverse thrust deploys in air during 777 landing
A couple of weeks ago, Typhoon Podul brought bad weather to parts of Asia, including Taiwan. As you’d expect, this made for some challenging conditions for planes landing at Taipei Taoyuan Airport (TPE), for the periods where the airport was open.
For example, I’ve already covered how a UPS Boeing 747-8 made a fiery landing at the airport during the storm, and the plane has been out of service ever since.
However, that wasn’t the only exciting landing we saw that day. Video footage circulating online also shows an EVA Air Boeing 777 Freighter landing at the airport on August 13, 2025.
You can see the extent to which the plane is battling winds — it touches down quite early, then its reverse thrusters deploy *ONCE THE PLANE IS BACK IN THE AIR*, and then as you’d expect, it falls back down to earth, with quite a bounce on touchdown.
Which aircraft and flight was this? I can’t quite make out the registration code based on the video. I see some people online suggesting that this was a flight from Hanoi (HAN), which landed at 3:42PM. That would’ve made this flight BR6062, operated by a seven-year-old plane with the registration code B-16782.
However, I also see some people suggesting this was a flight from Los Angeles (LAX), which landed at 3:06PM. That would’ve made this flight BR609, operated by a seven-year-old plane with the registration code B-16781.
I’m inclined to believe it was that Los Angeles flight, since that flight had two go arounds before finally landing the third time.
There’s video footage of one of the two previous go arounds, which was also quite something to witness.
I didn’t even know that was possible?
I asked a friend who is a Boeing 777 pilot about this landing, and he didn’t even know where to start when it comes to what we’re seeing here, and why the pilots didn’t decide to go around. Nothing about this approach seemed stable.
But if this was in fact the plane’s third landing attempt, and the pilots were just coming off an ultra long haul flight, this points to a case of “get-there-itis,” where the pilots prioritized reaching their destination at all costs, even when faced with an unstable approach. Given that they already had two failed landing attempts, I imagine they were getting pretty close to minimum fuel, and would’ve likely had to divert.
Never before have I seen an aircraft’s reverse thruster’s deploy while airborne. You wouldn’t think that’s possible (since there are no circumstances where you’d want to deploy reverse thrusters in the air), though maybe once the plane touched down, those were automatically deployed, without consideration for the fact that the plane was airborne again?
Interestingly, it looks like there was no structural damage, as the plane wasn’t even taken out of service for any sort of extended period of time.
Bottom line
An EVA Air Cargo Boeing 777 had a shocking landing at Taipei Taoyuan during a typhoon, whereby the plane had quite the bounce, and then had reverse thrust deploy once back in the air. I’ve never seen something quite like that before.
What a wild day for operations at the airport, given that a landing incident involving a UPS Boeing 747-8 ended up taking the plane out of commission for weeks.
What do you make of this EVA Air Cargo Boeing 777 landing?
I only taught the 777 for one year. I've taught Part 121 flying for 27 years. I have NEVER seen a thrust reverser open in flight except from a malfunction. There are way too many safeguards. The McDonnell Douglas MD series could deploy the clamshell reversers before the nose touched down...banging the lower clamshell! I know that NASA modified the a few Gulfstream "buckets" to simulate the Shuttle and some of the military aircraft can...
I only taught the 777 for one year. I've taught Part 121 flying for 27 years. I have NEVER seen a thrust reverser open in flight except from a malfunction. There are way too many safeguards. The McDonnell Douglas MD series could deploy the clamshell reversers before the nose touched down...banging the lower clamshell! I know that NASA modified the a few Gulfstream "buckets" to simulate the Shuttle and some of the military aircraft can do the same for tactical reasons.
Since the crash of Lauda Air 004 in 1991, aircraft thrust reversers were redesigned to require weight on the main landing gear, before opening.
Here, you had that, albeit temporarily. But it was enough.
The late Niki Lauda thanks you.
I would have to imagine a cargo plane coming back from LAX is nearly empty, especially if they flew nonstop. So maybe plane wasn't that heavy and didn't get damage. If they are fully loaded, don't they usually fly LAX-ANC-TPE?
You're generally going to bulk-out the volume on a 77F, long before you hit MZFW. So transpacific range generally won't be a problem. It's the main thing the 777-F was designed for)
On most days, EVA has 2 cargo flights (BR619 and 621) from LAX and China Airlines has 1 (CI5115), and they almost always do LAX-TPE nonstop.
Looking at the very short video clip …. Some fine flying there in tricky conditions Captain. Any landing which you walk away from is a good landing.
Agreed! Here's a comment from a well known aviator!“If you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing. If you can use the airplane the next day, it’s an outstanding landing!” USAF General Charles E. Yeager
From what I know, reverse thrust is not activated automatically but manually. However there is a delay from when the pilot puts the throttles into reverser thrust, to when they actually deploy. I imagine the pilots engaged the reverse thrust upon touchdown, and the gear had enough of a ‘on the ground’ signal to allow activation. But then by the time the reversers actually activated, the plane was back in the air…
As my Norwegian grandmother would say,
“Uff-da”!
Or «hæstkuk»
It would seem that the gear position switches that detect "landed" status were engaged enough on the right bogie, to trigger the thrust reversers.
"You wouldn’t think that’s possible"
The late Niki Lauda sends his regards.