Skip to main content

How Big Jet TV won the internet

As millions of people hunkered down at home on Friday during the U.K.’s worst storm in 32 years, aviation enthusiast Jerry Dyer jumped in his van and drove to London’s Heathrow Airport to livestream passenger jets coming in to land in the challenging conditions.

Within a few hours of Dyer launching his Big Jet TV livestream from the top of his vehicle at the end of Heathrow’s runway 27L, social media started to take notice, with shares and retweets pushing his audience to as high as 200,000 people during the eight-hour livestream.

Related Videos

Folks were drawn not only by the incredible efforts of the highly skilled pilots working to get their aircraft safely on the ground, but also by Dyer’s colorful, down-to-earth commentary as planes roared overhead on their turbulent final approach (or not if they had to perform a so-called “go-around”).

Being one of the busiest airports in the world, jets were coming in every few minutes, with the flying machines lurching in the sky as the stormy conditions tested the pilots’ talents to the limit.

As the livestream went viral, Dyer’s camera skills were also tested as he continued to broadcast the landings while simultaneously fielding a growing number of calls from media outlets interested in his livestream, and shooing away curious horses who were trying to eat his van — all of this while Dyer himself fought valiantly to avoid being blown off the top of his vehicle by the intermittent gusts.

Here’s another plane flown by a “pilot with finesse,” as Dyer puts it.

With his camera trained on an incoming passenger plane, Dyer told his growing global audience, “You don’t know whether this is a rookie pilot, it could be his or her first serious attempt at landing in real conditions … I mean simulator training is a really good thing but … there’s just nothing like [landing in a real storm], you feel the whole aircraft sway.”

As the blustery conditions persisted, some pilots had no choice but to abort the landing at the last moment …

The Big Jet TV founder, whose father was a commercial jet pilot, also captured several landings performed by the Airbus A380, a double-decker aircraft that also happens to be the largest passenger plane in the world. Here’s a Qatar Airways A380 approaching for the third time following two aborted landings during Friday’s storm …

At one point British actor Ralf Little tweeted that he was about to make “an unplanned appearance on Big Jet TV” as his plane departed Edinburgh, bound for Heathrow …

The internet of course did what the internet does, with creative folks wasting little time in getting involved …

Everyone sat watching Big Jet TV right now #BOSH #BigJetTV #Heathrow #StormEunice #Storm #GoOnJerry @BigJetTVLIVE pic.twitter.com/4o5gBBqSsD

— Tom Leak (@Tom_Leak) February 18, 2022

The pilots arriving inside the terminal after landing at Heathrow #bigjettv #StormEunice @BigJetTVLIVE pic.twitter.com/hjOudRhShR

— John Fox (@foxymm21) February 18, 2022

While some on social media expressed unease with Dyer’s jovial attitude as the planes rocked and rolled their way toward the runway, his upbeat manner was more of a reflection of his confidence in the impressive piloting skills rather than any disregard for the feelings of the passengers. Indeed, he often expressed sympathy for those on board who were perhaps wishing they’d stayed at home that day.

Highlighting the pilots’ brilliant work, this cockpit video shows an aircraft coming in to land at Heathrow during the storm, with Dyer’s video of the very same flight added to the clip …

Amazing – here’s my friend Captain Khalifa Al Thani landing his Boeing 777 🇶🇦✈️ in #StormEunice 💨 at a windy London Heathrow Airport today…a side-by-side video with BigJet TV’s 🚨 now famous commentary 😆👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/lVGJzsBo8m

— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) February 18, 2022

Dyer, who usually works in much calmer weather conditions, launched his Big Jet TV channel in 2016 and travels to airports around the world to livestream content for his growing base of subscribers. In just a couple of days, Friday’s video has now clocked up an astonishing 7.5 million views.

Editors' Recommendations

The Weather Channel is coming to YouTube TV
YouTube TV on Apple TV.

The Weather Channel -- which previously had seen relatively small reach on streaming platforms in the United States -- is starting to branch out. YouTube TV will gain the 24-7 weather service this year, according to a press release from Allen Media Group and Google.

The addition is a big deal because The Weather Channel had been limited to two of the smallest streaming platforms -- FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. It also fills a pretty big void in the YouTube TV lineup, which doesn't currently have an all-day weather channel. YouTube TV is believed to be the second-largest streaming service in the United States. It last announced a ballpark figure of "more than 3 million subscribers" in October 2020. It hasn't given any sort of update since then. For context, Hulu with Live TV has a publicly announced 4 million paid subscribers.

Read more
Roku adds Live TV Zone to homescreen
Roku Live TV.

Roku today announced that it's implementing a "Live TV" zone on its home screen. Live TV offers access to the Roku Live TV Channel Guide and a simple way to access cable-cutting options such as YouTube TV, Sling, Philo, Hulu, fuboTV, and others.

The Live TV Channel Guide will offer customers access to more than 200 free live channels ranging from local and national news, sports, children's programming, lifestyle, and Spanish language entertainment as well. Some channels include ABC News Live, Funny or Die, WeatherNation, and Game Show Central.  Movie lovers will be happy to note the Live TV Channel Guide also includes over 25,000 free movies to stream.

Read more
Curiosity investigates how to keep Mars explorers safe from radiation
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, to take this selfie at the “Quela” drilling location in the “Murray Buttes” area on lower Mount Sharp between Sept. 17 and 18, 2016.

One of the biggest dangers to humans when planning a mission to Mars is something invisible: Radiation. Without the Earth's magnetosphere to protect them, astronauts would be bombarded with radiation while visiting Mars. And although living on the red planet for a few months probably wouldn't be immediately fatal, it would increase lifetime risks for illnesses like cancer considerably.

There are plans like using shielding or medication to protect future astronauts visiting Mars, but there's still a huge amount we don't know about the radiation risks there. To address these unknowns, NASA's Curiosity rover is armed with a radiation detector and is performing experiments to see how we could protect astronauts against dangerous radiation particles.

Read more