The government warned everyone to stay inside as a winter gale with 70 mile-per-hour wind gusts tore across the British Isles on Friday. Jerry Dyer went out to a field at the end of the runway at the airport to capture live footage of planes trying to land.
Within minutes, Mr. Dyer's feed on Big Jet TV went viral, drawing nearly 200,000 people who watched every word of his play-by-play. Within hours, he had become a media sensation, pulled out of the enthusiastic, if obscure, subculture of plane spotters to do interviews with the BBC, ITV and Channel Four.
"It's easy, it's easy, it's easy, it's easy, it's easy, it's easy, it's easy, it's easy, it's easy, it's easy, it's easy, it'
He shouted "Go around!" as the A380 aborted its approach and climbed back into the clouds. The plane made a second failed attempt. He offered to buy beer for the pilots if they landed the plane. They did.
He looks high, Mr. Dyer said of a British Airways jet that struggled to descend before planting itself well down the runway.
There was a lot of upheaval from the storm. The red weather warning was issued for London. The roof of the O2 sports arena was torn apart. There was a video showing pedestrians being blown into the street. Television broadcasters showed pictures of waves crashing into sea walls.
Mr. Dyer caught the public imagination. For anyone who has ever been on a bumpy landing, his images were frightening. Some planes landed at an angle and swung around as their tires gripped the tarmac. Others hit the floor or dipped their wings. About a third of the planes were forced to go around for a few hours because of the storms.
The founder of Big Jet TV is an aviation buff who founded an online membership club and films landings twice a week. He lavished attention on an older plane and referred to it as a "big old bully boy triple-7".
Mr. Dyer said at one point, "Let's see how the Chinese do." and at another, "Here come the Russians."
He said that he would like to see how the Brits do with their plane. The A380, a double-deck airliner that carries 600 passengers but has fallen out of fashion, was the subject of Mr. Dyer's hopes that the airline would stay committed to it. He praised the carrier for painting some of its planes.
"Smell that tire smoke from the 380, mate, Mr. Dyer exclaimed from his perch across a road and a chain-link fence from the runway."
In the gaps between the planes, Mr. Dyer photographed a small herd of horses that gamboled around the field, stopping occasionally to rub their noses on the hood of his truck. He was not able to drink coffee in the wind. He read comments from people in Ireland and the United States. He was juggling visits from film crews.
Mr. Dyer rubs some people the wrong way. He snapped when he heard of the death of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's husband, and apologized the next day.
He told the radio that the situation was the best he had ever seen.
While repeating his admiration for the skills of the pilots, an unmistakable glee crept into his voice whenever a plane looked to be having an especially gnarly approach.
He said with pleasure as the wind whipped up after a brief lull. Bring it on, man.
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