Live stream of planes landing at Heathrow Airport during storm draws surprisingly big online crowd

A live stream of planes attempting to land at London's Heathrow Airport might be Friday's hottest morning show.

As the U.K. was slammed Friday with a dangerous storm, a YouTube live stream from Big Jet TV of planes landing at Heathrow Airport became an online sensation. At one point, over 200,000 people were tuned in to watch the nail-biting landings in real time — and listen to the hilariously enthusiastic play-by-play that made it feel like a sporting event. "The commentary is like a football match," broadcaster Scott Bryan observed, also pointing out the stream was getting "more than two and a half times more viewers than GB News usually gets."

Big Jet TV, according to its website, offers "live shows from airports around the U.K.," as well as shows from international airports "exclusive to First and Super Class Members." The stream went viral on Friday as ​​the storm, Eunice, slammed Britain and Northern Europe, and according to The New York Times, it was "expected to be the worst to hit the region in 30 years."

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Big Jet TV's YouTube chat was lighting up with comments during the stream, which sped by so quickly they could at some points barely be read. The stream became such a sudden hit, in fact, that a journalist could be heard trying to interview presenter Jerry Dyer about its success while he was still broadcasting.

Big Jet TV's stream remains active at this time after nearly five hours of broadcasting, and if the viewership keeps climbing, don't be shocked if more people end up watching it than next month's Oscars.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan is a staff writer at The Week. A graduate of Hofstra University with a degree in journalism, he also writes about horror films for Bloody Disgusting and has previously contributed to The Cheat Sheet, Heavy, WhatCulture, and more. He lives in New York City surrounded by Star Wars posters.