How harsh does the weather have to be for a passenger airline plane not to be able to land?

As in can the plane land if theres a little ice on the runway?How harsh does the weather have to be for a passenger airline plane not to be able to land?Depends on the aircraft and the airport. In an aircraft and airport which support the autoland ability, the plane can land in virtually zero visibility. Most airliners can land with stiff crosswinds, rain, snow, fog, clouds, any type of weather really.



The main thing that would stop a big jet is a thunderstorm. Ice is also a very serious concern. With a sophisticated anti-skid system, a little ice on the runway is no big deal at all. It's freezing rain and sudden significant ice build-up on the runway that becomes a problem.



The pilots will know how much is too much for their aircraft, and if they don't think they can land safely they'll go to an alternate airport.How harsh does the weather have to be for a passenger airline plane not to be able to land?
has to be pretty bad its just when its cominng down faster than they can clean it off and plane cant land while cleanning strip but snow and ice they can still land just takes longer and once one starts backing up waiting its hours to get them all on ground

ive landed in a plane where run way was so slick you couldnt walk on itHow harsh does the weather have to be for a passenger airline plane not to be able to land?Strong winds make it very hard.How harsh does the weather have to be for a passenger airline plane not to be able to land?
Airports are responsible to provide runway friction information to airliners on an agreed upon scale. Often a truck with a specially designed sensor is driven down the runway, and the friction data is recorded and transmitted to inbound flights. The accuracy of these readings varies widely, depending on where the truck does its sampling compared to where the airplane lands.



Ice on the runway affects the friction reading, and if it drops below a certain value, the flight cannot land.How harsh does the weather have to be for a passenger airline plane not to be able to land?It depends on what kind of plane and what kind of weather. A large jet airliner is capable of landing in conditions of very low visibility and ceilings where as a small cessna would not be allowed to fly.Aircraft with sophisticated equipement and properly trained crew can land their airliners in almost zero visibility but the airport also has to be certified for these low visibility operations. In simple terms for an ILS approach which is considered to be a precision approach,the ceiling and visibility should be 200 feet and 1/2 a statute mile for a successful landing. For non precision approaches such as an RNAV ,VOR, or NDB approaches the minimum ceiling and visibility would be more like 500 feet and 1 1/4 miles. As far as the wind is concerned it is much trickier to land with a strong crosswind but most large airports have multiple runways so they can choose the runway which is most aligned into the wind. Every aircraft has a demonstrated crosswind capability but it has a lot to do with pilot skill. Landing in a thunderstorm is never a good idea. Most pilots know better and will wait it out if they have the fuel or divert to their alternate aiport.How harsh does the weather have to be for a passenger airline plane not to be able to land?
Exceed the crosswind or tail wind limitations or worse the 600/600/600 RVR for a CAT III capable plane and crew.How harsh does the weather have to be for a passenger airline plane not to be able to land?
It depends on many factors, so there are no specific numbers that can be cited. In general, the things that might prevent a landing include very poor visibility, lots of ice on the runway, excessive crosswinds (winds blowing across the runway, instead of along the runway), or severe gusting winds (including windshear, vertical movements of the wind).



Airports try to remove ice from the runway, but the other factors are beyond their control. Most jet airliners are equipped to land in zero visibility, but the airport must also be certified for this, and in actual operations some visibility is necessary just to taxi, so poor visibility might still stop landings.