A plane has been filmed flying perilously close to a series of tornadoes in the skies above Russia.

The remarkable video was taken on the approach to the city of Sochi on the banks of the Black Sea. In the footage posted to Instagram, a flight can be seen coming into land, passing a number of vast pillars of wind-whipped clouds.

A post shared by Алексей Воронцов (@alvrnc) on Aug 29, 2017 at 5:35am PDT

The same tornadoes were photographed by passengers arriving by air to the city’s airport on Tuesday. The weather caused delays, a number of cancellations and the diversions of some flights to alternative airports.

A post shared by Сочи В Теме (@sochi_vteme) on Aug 29, 2017 at 11:56am PDT

More tornadoes were photographed off the coast, with one local newspaper reporting up to 12 formations over the Black Sea. Similar tornadoes were seen in the region two weeks ago.

A post shared by Pavel Petrovskiy (@pavelpetrovskiy) on Aug 29, 2017 at 8:44am PDT

Strong winds, storms and tornadoes can be very disruptive to flying due to the unpredictability of gusts playing havoc with planes coming into land and taking off. Such conditions also increase the likelihood of severe turbulence.

In the windiest conditions “wingstrike" – when a wing hits the runway - may occur. It doesn’t happen often, although one notable incident took place in 2008, when a Lufthansa A320 tried to land at Hamburg Airport amid gusts of up to 47 knots (54mph). The footage on YouTube is excruciating, but no one was hurt and the plane eventually touched down on another runway.

The phenomenon known as “wind shear” also poses a risk. This is a sudden change in wind speed and/or direction, causing turbulence or a rapid increase or decrease in velocity. A tricky scenario might see a pilot attempting to land into a headwind that suddenly turns into a tailwind.