You would be slightly pissed off if on this flight...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7787496.stm

Aj
<B6>
Good to be back on the nipper after all these sub Zero days!

 

Yeah. They've been saving up for years to get out of Wales, then the
bastards land them right back there where they started.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Hankjam

Not as pissed off as you'd be of the guy landed below his minima and
crashed though, eh?

 

Good job he was bunkering enough fuel to get back to where he came from.
Surprised that neither of the pilots was sufficiently current on that
type of aircraft to land in fog though.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Simon Atkinson

Enough fuel to divert because he'd read the forecast, and knew a return
was on the cards.

New-ish aircraft. Cat II conditions. I'm not surprised.

No real story here, other than a captain being a little too verbose in
his explanation. "It's too foggy to land, we're going home, sorry."
would have sufficed.

 

Surprised he diverted all the way back to Cardiff, though.

We had similar coming back with BMI Baby from Portugal - weather too bad
at Cardiff to land, so diverted to Bristol.

You'd have thought he'd have diverted to somewhere a little more local
than coming all the way home? - or would they be restricted to landing
somewhere they usually fly to?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Wicked Uncle

On reflection, I would like to rephrase this.

The guy is undoubtedly Cat II qualified on other aircraft types. There
is little doubt he could have landed in perfect safety.

However, he was not qualified on that particular aircraft type. so (by
CAA rules) to land would have been illegal. So he chose not to do so,
and I have no criticism whatsoever of him for that decision. It was the
correct thing to do.

The cabin announcement, however, seems to have been ill-judged.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, SteveH

They'd have landed wherever was safe, and judged best, to do so.

Now, if CdG was socked in, then it's very likely so was everything else
in the Paris area. So: Northern France, or somewhere like Brizzle,
Jersey maybe?

No idea how long Paris might be off the menu.

Let's get back to where these nice people started. Maybe some of them
can go home tonight and try again later? Or we could drop them in
Le-Midi-De-Fucking-Nowhere, just south of Calais, and hope there's a
hotel room or two available...

 

(SteveH) wrote in :

Cost & logisitcs.

The aircraft was probably due to return to Cardiff for another flight later
in the day. Possibly with the same crew.

They'd already agreed to pay landing & baggage fees at CWL. Why request an
unscheduled slot elsewhere when they could ask CWL bring their booked slot
forward by 45[1] minutes?

[1] about the time it would a Dash8 to turnaround in Paris.

 

Bristol? If he can't land in a touch of fog at CdG, he's probably not
allowed within 10 nautical miles of the Lulsgate TMA.

 

Did nothing wrong, and I'd want him as a pilot on any flight I'm on.

Fix yer sigsep.

 

Only for those in the cabin who enjoy making a fuss about nothing and
/or utterly clueless cunts.

Oh, wait - that's 95%. On reflection, he should have kept it short and
sweet.

 

"I've changed my mind."

 

Having just seen what happens in Die Hard 2 when a pilot tries to land
in fog, I'm on his side.

 

Not a rarity.
Many airports have CAT3 facilities but weather bad enough to need a CAT3
approach is quite rare in most cases. For a CAT3 approach BOTH pilots
need to be CAT3 current so a suitable crew would only be rostered if
bad weather was expected for the destination. Occasionally the weather
will close in unexpectedly and the flight will divert to a nearby
airport which is open.
Short haul flights are generally flown by less experienced crew but
the short flight times generally mean that weather expectations are
usually reliable. Long haul OTOH involves senior crews who are more
fully qualified to cope with the unexpected.

I would suspect that in this case the aircraft was recalled to avoid
the expense and potential knockon delays of a diversion. Low cost
airlines do not have the spare capacity to easily recover schedules
if flights are seriously delayed.

 

The captain would have called home for advice. Low cost airlines cannot
afford to have an aircraft in the wrong place if this would cause a
knockon series of delays or cancellations.

 

Bristol is the normal diversion for Cardiff and vice versa because they
very rarely get the same weather. Cardiff is right down at sea level and
Bristol is on the top of a hill.

 

On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:03:58 +0000, Wicked Uncle Nigel

No, I would be with you on the safety first.

Note to self: do not post to UKRM when you've had a few...

Aj

 

Pilot's decision sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

 

+1

However, I can't guarantee that, as per the subject line, I wouldn't be
slightly pissed off if I had been on the flight.