The fog at Heathrow grounding all the BA planes.. would people?

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lizarddd

I think BA have done the right thing in grounding their planes, if its too dangerous to fly then what else can they do?!

asbo_arry

Come on...nature works in mysterious ways, but do we not hear time and time again how 'in the 21st century' Heathrow is, from 'tooled up' policemen (who obviously know the difference between Brazilian plumbers and bona fide terrorists...we hope!) to the 'experience of the watch-tower of the busiest' - or is it in fact second, third...or even 4th busiest - airport in the world.

â™¥ Bekka â™¥

Couldn't agree more.
Sadly you can never please people.
I feel for all those poor BA employees who have/will be getting stick from angry customers.

maka

Planes can fly, take off and land in fog, withh all the navigation and auto pilot systems.

They would be cancelled for two reasons.
Smaller planes without the required equipment.
They also for safety increase the spacing between planes landing and taking off, so some planes need to be cancelled to allow for bigger gaps.

Of course its BA's fault for the fog.
I thought everyone knew that.

Norm

They have done the right thing, best to be safe

roxy

I agree with you ................. rather held up at the airport than not make it to wherever I was going for Christmas!!!!

Whatever you are doing or wherever you are going at Christmas hope itÂ´s a good one and SAFE!!!!

Xtine

Better safe than sorry.I'm surprised the media has not held the government entirely responsible for this as they blame everybody's short fallings on them.Somebody on this site is bound to blame Tony Blair for it.

Shiraz

I am with you on this one. I also get frustrated when I see people complaining about the increased security checks. I would want to know that they took there time and checked everyone prior to getting on a plane I was going to fly on. Most people just don't see it that way. There is a reason why these things are done, its called safety

chelle0980

I agree with you , it's the same when it snows, do they really want to die?

hailesaladdie

It's not really that the planes can't take off or land safely: the technology to take off and land in freezing fog has been around for years, and the built-in safety is massively overengineered (as it should be).

But rather, the weather means that the aircraft landing and taking off have to separated by a greater extent, as a failsafe, and to help air and ground control.

The problem is that Heathrow is hugely oversubscribed. Few airports have the density of traffic Heathrow does, let alone with only two usable runways. This means that in any 'Wx' (weather situation), whole swathes of flights are cancelled, which in turn causes a build-up of excessive aircraft on the airfield, which is lacking in parking spaces as it is... This feeds on itself until the airport can grind to a standstill.

Why Heathrow remains so popular, and why efforts to relocate flights to other or new airports in the South East (the location is now completely unsuitable for a major airport, let alone the expansions required) is a mystery to me, but I suspect it has to do with the influence of the high-profile companies that have located themselves along the M4 corridor.

So yes, I do blame BA, indirectly, but more appropriately BAA and successive governments for failing to have the vision either to create a properly scaled airport for the South-East, or to limit slots to the point where weather doesn't have such a drastic effect.

ehc11

Someone with common sense where fling on holiday is involved, you are a rarity!

No matter how good people in Aviation or Aerospace are they cannot control the weather! People are always too quick to complain about delays due to weather or faults on the a/c which do happen (just like a car breaking down!) and don't realise that they are delayed for a reason! I wish people would just realise that these delays are for their safety. This is partly down to the EU passenger compensation laws which I think should not have been introduced.

Jomtien C

Its just a ploy to fill up their restaurants

douglas b

They've done the right thing. But what's happening to all the planes that need to land.
Are they being redirected?

mad

Quite right - but hard luck on all those people who are delayed, especially folks trying to get home for Christmas, or who have a special occasion to attend.

JAMES

same here i would rather wait and use the next availble flight beaside what about the other airlines how are they coping

luddite

Spot on! Miserable whingers. How can you blame the airlines, it's the WEATHER! Blame God. I think he's pissed off with everyone going on holiday for Christmas instead of spending it with their families and celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Pit Bull

Surely in this day and age all planes have autopilots and autoland facilities so why on earth are BA cancelling internal flights instead of just running them late or diverting them??
Surely at this time of year when many flights are fully booked a late flight is better than no flight at all.

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