BA Flights doing U Turns

[Dedworth]

http://www.radarvirtuel.com/

I could well be interpreting this wrongly but click on some of these aircraft and they are shown to be Heathrow bound from places like Vancouver, Calgary, Lagos and they look to have done u turns or circling off N Ireland.

[RickyR]

And now all airports to be opening from 22:00 onwards; I wonder if BA had any inside knowledge?

[Dedworth]

And now all airports to be opening from 22:00 onwards; I wonder if BA had any inside knowledge?

I was told that BA had a lot of long haul flights in the air - looking now at Heathrow Flight Arrivals there are a host that landed after 22:00 - LA, Mumbai, Calgary, Miami, Vegas, Denver - theres Honkers due at 04:00 etc etc.

I reckon BA just fronted up to the failed Govt and said "stuff you Pal we're on our way"............. looking at this it confirms it http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8631429.stm "18:32 BA tells the BBC it still plans to land more than a dozen long-haul flights that are currently en route at Heathrow, despite the fact airspace over southern England remains closed. It is unclear what conversations have been taking place between BA and Nats"

[keithAngel]

I was told that BA had a lot of long haul flights in the air - looking now at Heathrow Flight Arrivals there are a host that landed after 22:00 - LA, Mumbai, Calgary, Miami, Vegas, Denver - theres Honkers due at 04:00 etc etc.

I reckon BA just fronted up to the failed Govt and said "stuff you Pal we're on our way"............. looking at this it confirms it http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8631429.stm "18:32 BA tells the BBC it still plans to land more than a dozen long-haul flights that are currently en route at Heathrow, despite the fact airspace over southern England remains closed. It is unclear what conversations have been taking place between BA and Nats"

Your not Capt W.E.Johns ?

[Dedworth]

Your not Capt W.E.Johns ?

Chocks Away !

[KeithD]

What happened was BA had flights in the air from LA, S America, etc, as they expected the airports to have opened at 7pm. This was then changed to 1am, so while they haggled over the time the planes had to circle over the Atlantic.... The time was then settled on 10pm as they would have run out of fuel by 1am and crashed.

[RickyR]

Willie Walsh putting the pressure on. A have full respect for the decisions made by the CAA, Eurocontrol and NATS, because to be honest, no data has been gathered on the effects of the ash further away from the volcano. Willie Walsh is an ex pilot, but really thinks only like a manager now and the pounds/dollars!

[Dedworth]

Willie Walsh putting the pressure on. A have full respect for the decisions made by the CAA, Eurocontrol and NATS, because to be honest, no data has been gathered on the effects of the ash further away from the volcano. Willie Walsh is an ex pilot, but really thinks only like a manager now and the pounds/dollars!

I don't really buy this there have been Volcano eruptions in or off Iceland before, plus other parts of the world with strong volcano activity - Indonesia for example. Walsh said something about planes often flying through dust/debris without even realising it.

I sense the clammy hand of 'Elf & Safety/Risk Assessment all over this one along with a Govt strong on words but light on action. Already Brown, Adonis, Milliband and Co will be wriggling and heaping the blame on the CAA, EU, John Majors last Tory Govt etc etc

In 1982 a task force was assembled within a couple of days and sailed off half way round the world to free the Falkland Islands. This shower can't even organise a hundred coaches.

[KeithD]

This shower can't even organise a hundred coaches.
No... but they organised 150..... :doh

[RickyR]

But on the other hand, there have been major incidents in asia and deaths caused by passing through volcano ash. Yes, unfortunately the hesitant decision is due to the health, safety and blame culture that exists and I believe that tests could have been conducted earlier to ascertain the actual hazards, even if they flew over the ocean rather then overland. The view of NATS/CAA as I mentioned earlier is that the likelihood is low, but the severity of an incident happening over the UK would be major.
If they have any sense, they will use this incident to conduct more studies into the actual effects and have more definative guidance to pilots. All previous guidance produced by the FAA, CAA, JAA, EASA etc has been 'do not fly', wheras in the future they should be able to provide clearer fly and no fly zones. They have seen sense now that all aircraft will have engine inspections after landing.

The media have had a great time spinning this situation, starting with the 'DEATH, CRASH, ASH CLOUD WILL KILL MILLIONS' sort of headlines and finishing with 'OVEREACTION, BLAME CAA, BLAME NATS, POOR PEOPLE ABROAD'.

[KeithD]

All major incidents are of planes that have passed through the main cloud, not through a dispersed cloud which has no reported incidents. Over Europe it has always been a dispersed cloud :doh

As I've been saying all along the theory model was incorrect, and the part/mil tolerance was taken as zero ... when in fact background dust is normally 10ppm :Erm: .... the dispersed ash knocked that up to 100ppm, still extremely low which is what I've been saying, and now they have decided that zero tolerance is wrong, and the limit should be 2,000ppm .... a massive jump from zero!!! So I've been right all along ... not unusual though :D

[RickyR]

Yes, your completely correct. The regulations were put in place because all previous incidents have been in remote places, so putting a complete ban on flying in and near ash has not been an issue. Something like this has brought to light that they were wrong, and should have studied the effects of dispersed ash much earlier. The problem isn't just the dust, but its the heat and near to volcancos', photos of the engines actually show it burning into the metal.