Hero, by definition, is someone who does something heroic or outstanding.
I would suggest that the LH pilot was doing exactly what he is paid to do. Fly the aircraft. As did the Iberia pilot in Bilbao, incidentally.
The fact that the wing-tip touched the runway in one instance and not in the other makes no difference. The correct decision was made, to Go-Around, land and go home for dinner and a glass of wine.
Whatever happened that day is not cause for me or indeed any of you so-called professionals to post judgement the pilot. He was landing within the limits of the aircraft and de facto, his own as he is a LH Captain. The fact that a gust caught him out at the critical point in the landing does NOT mean, most emphatically, that he is anything less than a competent and well qualified pilot.
I would just say this to some of you; were you flying last week in the extreme weather that obtained over large tracts of Europe? If not, then please refrain from posting an opinion about the qualifications of the pilot.
How many years have you been flying as the handling pilot, in all and every weather condition imaginable, and perhaps some unimaginable, since you obtained that coveted license? Enough to be sure that you can land in those conditions that the LH Captain experienced last week?
Enough to be sure that you would have made the decision to divert to another airport much sooner? And where would you have gone? The whole of Europe was suffering the same met conditions last week so the closest, longest runway will always be the preferred choice. (Unless you happen to know of one into wind!)
All this talk of direct law and squeezing crab off at the appropriate time amount to nothing more than a lot of hot air. As has been mentioned, it's an aircraft, fly the airplane and land it as well as you can in the circumstances.
Extreme weather, which it undoubtedly was, make for extreme situations and I, along with a few other enlightened souls on this thread, salute the pilot for his quick reactions and obvious skill in retrieving a critical situation.
If you tell me he shouldn't have got himself into such a critical situation in the first place then all I can say to you is, show me the pilot who never misjudged a situation and I will show you a rank amateur, fair-weather air head who thinks he is superior to his peers. Believe me, if you think that, then God help you and God help us all.
I would rather trust my life with him than some of the so-called 'experts' who frequent these pages.
Well done, that man!