Watch a C-130 pilot’s terrifying view of a combat landing

Sometimes landing a plane looks much different than a smooth glide in until the wheels touch down.

During a “combat landing” that U.S. pilots perfected in Vietnam, the plane basically nose-dived in at a high-rate of speed and pulled up at the last second. The maneuver helped them avoid enemy fire. Now, it’s known as the “Sarajevo Approach” — so named for a similar landing pilots had to make in the war-torn nation of Bosnia so they could avoid missile strikes, according to Der Spiegel.

It sounds pretty terrifying, and it looks that way from the ground. But seeing it from the pilot’s perspective is even worse. In a video posted to the Facebook page Airplane, we get a sense of what one of these approaches looks like, which takes only about 30 seconds:

Watch:

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And here’s what it would look like from the ground (although this isn’t the same plane as the video above):

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