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Heathrow is struggling. Short of staff, winds limiting loading/unloading. Aircraft and crews out of position after diversions.
Not much getting to MAN this morning and most flights have to abort landing. Flightradar24 is very interesting.
We stopped departures from Heathrow, Stansted, Luton and City for a while yesterday.
Inbounds were struggling to land at Luton and Stansted so were returning to the established holds while they waited for weather to improve or decide on where to divert. When the holds were full a line squall of cells passed through and every aircraft(appx 20) left the holds to avoid it.
This resulted in all those aircraft wanting different headings and altitudes/levels. We stopped departures whilst we dealt with this as its generally safer for the planes to stay on the ground rather then add to the complexity.
Probably one of the harder days I've had...😬
Not much getting to MAN this morning and most flights have to abort landing. Flightradar24 is very interesting.
Just watching a Scandinavian Airlines flight in a hold over Blackburn.
My sister's flight yesterday was holding over Merseyside for a while as a massive spike of weather went through, it was absolutely torrential for about 15 mins. They finally got released for a circuit around the north of Manchester then in over Stockport, made it down first time but nearly an hour late.
Edit - just to be clear she was a passenger, not the pilot!
CobraKai, that sounded like a fun day yesterday, luckily being based at Bristol, don’t tend to get affected by London shenanigans.
Flew back empty into Bristol, as we got on approach, ground speed was about 100kts 😂
I’ve probably spoken to you on numerous occasions 👍
We had big issues with lack of ground staff on Saturday, due to all the cancellations on Friday being moved to Saturday, the ground handlers only had staff for the scheduled arrivals/departures and therefore when more aircraft turned up, chaos ensued, probably what is happening at Heathrow.
Some nice landings in the Heathrow video. I love flying but I'm not a big fan of turbulence. Having said that, I'd love to be able to look out of a cabin window and see the runway!
I don't really work EGGD traffic unless it's positioning in or out out of the London TMA but yes, it was busy yesterday, more so than Friday and Sat.
There’s no doubt London ATC are some of the best in the business, especially when there is issues with weather. They are calm and measured. I think uk pilots and ATC have a brilliant level of trust. They know we only ask for avoiding action if it’s really important. I’ve never been refused it when needed, but I also try and give them a range of options.
Thanks Dan. You're right, the level of trust is very high.
I always find if I'm given specifics, ie heading and distance required, then it's easier to agree. I always try and deal with a weather avoidance request within 3 transmissions because by the nature of the scenario, you don't have much time to chat!