WATCH: Planes land in scary cross-winds at Madeira Airport

Cape Town - The Portuguese archipelago of Madeira is home to one of the toughest airport approaches in the world. With a super short runway, pilots are only allowed to land there once they've received special training.

However, this past weekend saw the airport approach become even harder as strong cross-winds pushed planes off course, forcing them to land at scary angles. 

A video published on YouTube by Ruptly shows the attempts of various pilots.

"Several planes were unable to land safely due to high winds at Madeira International airport on Sunday. While some made several attempts before landing, others failed to land and were forced to fly to other airports," reads the description on the video.  

Similar footage of planes taking on cross winds at Leeds Airport in the UK also went viral earlier this year, suggesting that it's by no means a unique situation. 

However, we'd be happy if we could live our travelling life avoiding these sorts of landings as far as possible.