High winds shake planes landing in Bilbao, Spain << video

"New underpants for the pilot, please!"

Even more so for the passengers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13048131

Taiwan use their motorways as airfields in simulated attack excercises...

Does the UK have the same ability?

I know the German motorway system was specifically designed (post WWII) to be used as emegerncy airfields in the case of an attack from Eastern Europe.

Many "rest areas" on the motorway have heavy duty electrical connections and military telephone connections hidden in them. The central reservation can be removed in minutes and an emergency runway installed in minutes.

Likewise, along the old East/West German border, there are tank-traps built into the roads. In an emergency, they can be activated and heavs steel poles come out of the ground, which will trap tanks trying to pass (normal vehicles wouldn't even get into the area, they would be written off, when this hit the first pole).

Nope. The street light would rip the wings off (still not sure why they're installing lights on major sectins of motorways), the bridges would rip the tail off (and possible hit the fuselage too), the central crash barriers are right where the nose wheel would need to be and there are rarely enough straight bits of motorway to land a jet on.
Not to mention the time it would take to clear a section.

I understand Sweden have that capability though.

Skid marks all around Top marks to the pilots though.

I've been a passenger in similar conditions. It's bloody scary.

We had not dissimilar conditions when we flew into Southampton just after Christmas. Certainly made for a tense landing on the plane! Oliver however just thought all the joggling was hilarious, which was a lot better than him crying!

My mum has a similar story about me from thirty years ago.