London Heathrow: Airport Weather & Technical Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

[Aviador]

Fog caused disruption at Heathrow Airport this morning. Some flights were delayed and cancelled.

 

[Aviador]

Re: Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

Plane slips at Heathrow taxiway

The plane slipped in the heaviest snow the south-east has seen in 18 years

A plane has slipped off a taxiway at Heathrow Airport, lodging its front wheel in a grassy area.

Snow and ice are being blamed for the incident which happened when the Cyprus Airways flight landed at 0820 GMT and was moving to Terminal 1.

Heathrow's operator, BAA, said passengers were unharmed and were remaining on the aircraft.

A BAA spokesperson said the front wheel of the plane had landed in the grass area and was being removed.

The aeroplane was the last flight to land before both the runways at the airport were closed due to snow earlier on Monday, however the southern runway has since reopened.

British Airways cancelled all its flights until 1700 GMT.

London City Airport has also been closed.

London has seen the heaviest snowfall in 18 years with up to 6cm (0.2ft) of snow reported at Heathrow Airport, weather experts said.

The conditions led the Met Office to issue an extreme weather warning for the south east of England.

Source

 

[News Guru]

Re: Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

[textarea]Plan for Heathrow night flights to clear passenger backlog

The Government is considering relaxing night flight restrictions at Heathrow to allow airlines bring home hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded by the Iceland volcano eruption, the Guardian reports. The airport was expected to reopen this evening, although this has been thrown in to doubt by fresh eruptions from the Icelandic volcano.

Britain's airspace has started to open this morning, and it is reported that ministers were set to allow a 24-hour operation at Heathrow, with predictions that Heathrow would be operational by 18:00 today. However, hopes that Britain's airports could begin getting back to normal by the end of today, and that the 400,000 Britons stranded abroad could be repatriated, have been dashed by news that a second ash cloud is heading here from Iceland. British Airways, which had hoped to resume flights from Heathrow and Gatwick this evening, has been forced to review its plans.

Source[/textarea]

 

[Aviador]

Re: Diversions, Delays & Cancellations

Snow is causing problems this afternoon by all accounts.

The BD844 from Berlin-Tegel = A319, G-DBCDT has diverted to Leeds Bradford Airport. Numerous others have diverted to other airports in the North of the UK and to Continental Europe.

 

[Aviador]

In an article in the London Evening Standard they report that airlines didn't comply with restrictions put in place to assist snow clearing.

"Airlines must obey new emergency timetables at Heathrow during extreme weather to avoid misery for thousands of passengers, says Transport Secretary Philip Hammond. He told MPs that some airlines had not "fully co-operated" with the airport authorities during the height of the snow crisis in December."

I think there was an over reaction by the public at the time. It's a fact of life that weather will occasionally curtail plans for one thing or another. The weather during that period was exceptionally bad for the London area compared with most years so I feel the airport did just about everything it could under the circumstances.

 

[lbaspotter]

All British Airways flights before 14:00hrs on Tuesday, May 24th from London Heathrow to the Scotland, which includes shuttle services to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen are now Cancelled due to the Ash Cloud.

 

[jason1-11]

At LHR we're down to 300 /350 /300 on 9L with the MLS out of service.

 

[Aviador]

At LHR we're down to 300 /350 /300 on 9L with the MLS out of service.

Hi Jason

I ment to ask you the other day when you posted this but can you explain the difference between ILS and MLS and the benefits of the MLS system over an ILS system? Thanks in advance. 😛leasantry:

 

[The Pole]

At LHR we're down to 300 /350 /300 on 9L with the MLS out of service.

Hi Jason

I ment to ask you the other day when you posted this but can you explain the difference between ILS and MLS and the benefits of the MLS system over an ILS system? Thanks in advance. 😛leasantry:

Here is the links for the info you request

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_landing_system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_landing_system

 

[Aviador]

Thanks The Pole. It's a more versatile version of ILS basically.

 

[Aviador]

Apparently LHR cancelled around half of it's flights today according to the BBC. I always thought it was the airlines that cancelled flights not the individual airport? This may have something to do with the airports Snowplan. I seem to remember after last winters fiasco the airport said airlines would have to cancel short haul flights to ensure long haul flights operated. I don't know if it's that what was put into action?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Apparently LHR cancelled around half of it's flights today according to the BBC. I always thought it was the airlines that cancelled flights not the individual airport? This may have something to do with the airports Snowplan. I seem to remember after last winters fiasco the airport said airlines would have to cancel short haul flights to ensure long haul flights operated. I don't know if it's that what was put into action?

Yesterday it was being reported that BAA had pre-planned to operate only 2/3rds of LHR flights today because of the snow forecast. This despite the 'massive investment' in snow-clearing equipemt since last winter's several days of closure.

Now it seems that that half the flights were cancelled.

Whether long haul took precedence over short haul I don't know.

If it did it didn't stop a number of inbound BA long haul flights this morning being diverted to such far flung airports as Paris Cdg, Amsterdam, Glasgow, Prestwick, Shannon and Cardiff.

 

[Aviador]

One news report on the BBC this morning reported a passenger claim that they'd been diverted to Barcelona. The captain of his flights said there were "no available parking spaces at other UK airports so Barcelona seems like a nice place to go to"

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho ... 79586.html

A pretty damning report on the pantomime at LHR.

It does suggest that domestic and European flights were the ones to be axed (at least by BA) in the first instance.

 

[Aviador]

Every UK airport has to have a 'snowplan', I am sure I read parts of the new Heathrow 'snowplan' released shortly after last years snow event. From what I gather the short haul and domestic flights would be cancelled as part of the 'snowplan' to enable the airport to carry out snow clearing. At first this might sound stupid but the only way the snow clearing can be carried out is when the runways are shut. With the best equipment and the best will in the world you're looking at at least 25 to 45 minutes to clear each runway. We know Heathrow is slot restrained, so the only way this can be done is to have a one runway operation whilst snow clearing can be carried out.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I understand that but it still looks as though BAA badly misjudged things when their prior plan (a day before) to axe one third of the flights because of the snow forecast turned into cancelling around half.

The linked newspaper report explains some of the problems that led to the additional cancellations but I cannot understand why these were not factored in when they calculated that they would need to cancel only (my italics) a third of the flights.

It wasn't as if the snow was any heavier or more prolonged than the forecast. For once the weather people seemed to have been pretty accurate around the country.

I wonder if the BAA CEO will be in line for a bonus. :diablo:

 

[big g]

ANA 787 Diverted to LHR @ 05:49, JA805A, Flight NH203.

This is the Frankfurt flight diverted due fog, I thought FRA was catIIIb is it should have beenable to land.

First visit for ANA 787 to Heathrow.

 

[big g]

ANA 787 due to dept T3 @ 1000-1015.

 

[Aviador]

Fog causes flight disruption across the UK

A second day of fog across much of the country threatens to compound disruption to flights caused by a general strike in France.

Many flights were delayed or re-routed yesterday due to the bad weather conditions

More than 120 inbound and outbound flights were cancelled at Heathrow with others facing delays.

Read more: http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/ ... he+uk.html

Looks like many airports around the country are been affected by fog, not just London Heathrow.

 

[News Guru]

Heathrow runway closed and three injured after plane on fire makes emergency landing

At least three people have been injured after a plane had to make an emergency landing at Heathrow airport when smoke was seen coming from the back of the plane.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing flames and a trail of smoke from the back of the British Airways plane, which was carrying 75 passengers and travelling to Oslo.

Three people are being treated for minor injuries following the incident.

Both runways were closed following the incident, which happened on a British Airways airbus A319. The southern runway has now been re-opened.

Full Story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviatio ... nding.html