Watch a German Eurofighter Typhoon use the tailhook during emergency landing at SIAF 2016

A Eurofighter Typhoon performed a tailhook landing during SIAF 2016.

Tailhook landings by land-based aircraft are used in emergency situations to arrest planes experiencing failures that could imply a braking or steering malfunction.

Reportedly, this is what happened during SIAF (Slovak International Air Fest) at Sliac, Slovakia, on Aug. 29, the departures day, when a German Eurofighter Typhoon was forced to perform an emergency landing using the runway’s arresting system due to a hydraulic issue shortly after take-off.

Land-based military airfields operating combat jets use arresting gear systems to slow the aircraft down. There are three basic types of land-based systems: permanent, expeditionary, and overrun gear.

Some drones use a similar system to be recovered by ground crews.

Permanent systems feature arresting cables spanning the width of the runway. Cables are typically 1 to 1.25 inches (2.5 to 3.2 centimeters) in diameter and suspended 1.5 to 3 inches (3.8 to 7.6 centimeters) above the pavement surface by rubber donuts 6 inches (15.2 centimeters) in diameter.

Expeditionary systems are similar to permanent ones and are used for landing aircraft on short or temporary runways. These can be installed and uninstalled in a few hours.

Overrun gear consisting of hook cables and/or elastic nets known as barriers (or Safeland) and are used as a backup system. These are usually installed at the end of the runway and raised if needed to catch the planes before they reach the overrun area.

By the way, emergency landing aside (that you can see in the clip starting at 02:47), the following footage is pretty cool!

H/T Marek Maly for the heads-up

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About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.