A Lufthansa Airlines flight carrying 131 passengers narrowly escaped disaster during a landing attempt in gale force winds over the weekend.

The Germany aircraft was caught by gusting wind as it tried to land during the winter storm Emma, causing the tip of the aircraft's wing to graze the runway before the pilot got the plane back off the ground.

One of the passengers, Laura Mathes said she thought she was going to pass out at that very moment.

"I was in shock, I stopped breathing. Then I forgot about everything else around me, and my aunt took care of me and calmed me down."

The airplane landed safely on its second attempt. Juergen Raps, Chief Pilot of Lufthansa and Executive Vice President of Lufthansa said the success should be attributed to the outstanding response of the crew.

"Because the pilots in the cockpit responded absolutely professionally, and immediate carried out the 'go-around' maneouvre, nothing actually happened, thank God."

Passenger Sonja Lhota echoed the sentiment.

"I believe if we had not had such a great captain we would probably not be alive. That's how I see it as an experienced traveller."

The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon as the Airbus A320, approached Hamburg airport on a flight from Munich.