[Dave K]

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PK2 - 20/4/2010 16:04 Not all airlines seem so keen (my emphasis)

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The chief executive of CityJet has said that some airlines have taken risks running test flights through volcanic ash plumes. Speaking on RTE's News at One, Geoffrey O'Byrne-White said that following these test flights, damage had been caused to some aircraft which had flown in proximity to the ash. He said there was no point conducting test flights unless they were carried out by scientific aircraft. Mr O'Byrne-White said there had been huge commercial pressure on airlines to get back into the air, and he expressed concern that unreasonable pressure was being placed on the regulators to give way to those commercial needs.

Not only that but on the "News relating..." thread, a report says some German pilots feel they are being unfairly pressurised to make flights.

[John Robert Mellor]

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Big Dave's Gusset - 20/4/2010 16:08

Not only that but on the "News relating..." thread, a report says some German pilots feel they are being unfairly pressurised to make flights.

I will be gobsmacked if  we do not hear 1st hand from Pilots on a wide scale that they are being pressured to fly by being threatened with disciplinary action if they don't take the controls

 

[fuzion]

Flight Number : CGTDG
ICAO Hex Code : C07729
Reg Code : C-GTDG
Model : Airbus - A320

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Message : 15:45:39 UTC
Latitude : 51.88419
Longitude : -0.31334
Altitude : 281 m - 922 ft
Ground Speed : 221 km/h - 137 mph - 119 knots
Vertical Speed : -176 m/min - -577 ft/min (DESCENT)
Squawk : 4676
Heading : 254º

edit this one has now landed i think at luton!

Flight Number : CGTDH
ICAO Hex Code : C0772A
Reg Code : C-GTDH
Model : Airbus - A320-214

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Message : 15:50:04 UTC
Latitude : 51.89336
Longitude : -0.25963
Altitude : 480 m - 1575 ft
Ground Speed : 262 km/h - 163 mph - 141 knots
Vertical Speed : -195 m/min - -640 ft/min (DESCENT)
Squawk : 4676
Heading : 257º

both are just north of london and well below 20000ft !!

they have both now landed at luton ! im confused i thought it was a no fly zone except above 20000ft!

http://www.radarvirtuel.com/

[Dave W]

Could be test flights ...

[Dave W]

1635 Plane manufacturer Airbus and holiday operator Thomson are among those who have completed successful test flights. Thomson flew six aircraft from Iceland and reported no technical difficulties or damage to the planes.

[John Robert Mellor]

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Dave W - 20/4/2010 17:13 1635 Plane manufacturer Airbus and holiday operator Thomson are among those who have completed successful test flights. Thomson flew six aircraft from Iceland and reported no technical difficulties or damage to the planes.

( I know they are probably not your words Dave)

Am I the only one being frustrated by the use of the word 'successful' in conjunction with these test flights??  Surely successful can only be quantified after a number of flights, by the SAME plane over a number of days/weeks.  Just because the plane didn't fall out of the sky surely isn't the only verification for successful.

 

[Dave W]

Suspect in the main your concerns will fall on deaf ears in the industry at least, atm John..

[Andy Mayhew]

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PK2 - 20/4/2010 16:04 Not all airlines seem so keen (my emphasis)

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Geoffrey O'Byrne-White said that following these test flights, damage had been caused to some aircraft which had flown in proximity to the ash.

That's interesting, because as far as I know, the only aircraft reported to have suffered damage have been military jets.  Are airlines covering up?  

[Lightning Hunter]

I assume these airliners have had their engines stripped/scoped for damage/ash melting etc? The ash layers were visible to the eye this morning, as planes flew overhead.

[PK2]

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John Robert Mellor - 20/4/2010 17:21

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Dave W - 20/4/2010 17:13 1635 Plane manufacturer Airbus and holiday operator Thomson are among those who have completed successful test flights. Thomson flew six aircraft from Iceland and reported no technical difficulties or damage to the planes.

( I know they are probably not your words Dave)

Am I the only one being frustrated by the use of the word 'successful' in conjunction with these test flights?? 

no :)

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Surely successful can only be quantified after a number of flights, by the SAME plane over a number of days/weeks. ...

with measurements of the concentration of ash flown through and full inspections afterwards and ....
in a worrying way this "testing" by airlines reminds me of that mayor in Jaws :( . One would hope Airbus, Boeing, GE, RR, P&W, etc would get together and do some proper test flights (after ground testing first) since it's would have been a really good chance to do so with the cloud being not especially mobile etc.

[EllyTech]

Spotted one high altitude contrail today - plane traveling West; on usual flight path used by transatlantic flights from Heathrow. Time was (very approximately) around 16.00 BST.

Spotted one other, low flying plane and one helicopter.

[Flatlander]

KLM flight 695 has just passed over us, outbound Amsterdam to Toronto, according to radarvirtuel.com.

Leaving a (temporary) contrail, of course, so I couldn't miss it after so many days without any.

Presumably they think they are high enough at 32000ft.

This does have a "Jaws" feel to it. Can't they wait until Friday?

[megz]

We were travelling to Swindon at 11am this morning and saw our first plane since thursday, with a contrail....and then whilst sitting in outside the cafe at Avebury at around 2pm we saw three lots of two planes...all reasonably high but definitly NOT over 32000 feet..probably more like 22000,about ten minutes between them, each pair were heading west one behind the other...all on the same heading. It was quite wierd...then about 3pm one more solitary plane on the saming heading. Haven't seen anything else today. I atually saw the light airraft plane crash in Hampshire...we were at Thruxton at the BSB meeting., and suddenly a huge plume of black smoke appeared a few miles away across the track...and then heading home on the bike half an hour later we could see the smoke and wreckage from the A303....incidentallly there were no fire engines attending at that time. The crash was only about 200 metres from the main road....:(

[Lightning Hunter]

According to the BBC just now, BA are trying to persuade NATS and the Gov. to let them in, despite the airspace ban! They have 15 planes inbound from across the world (why they took-off in the first place, who knows).

[Dave W]

I thought thats what they might be doing when i heard that they were sending so many across. VERY naughty!

[Dave W]

BA now confirm they are intending to land the 12 flights at Heathrow!

[Lightning Hunter]

Well, if they let them in, they will have to re-open presumably, as pressure from other airlines will be huge!

[Dave W]

Confirmed that a stand off is developing between NATS and BA! Pistols at dawn..

[Dave K]

I think BA have lost the plot, there have to be serious repercussions if they attempt an unauthorised approach - think 9/11 and scrambled jet fighters, how do we know there aren't hijackers and terrorists behind this? OK, it isn't but with the way BA are behaving in the last few weeks it's time we stood firm against any form of compensation let the free market take care of it and let them go to the wall if necessary as we don't need a national flag carrier that behaves in this irresponsible way.

[Lightning Hunter]

Rumours on pprune that they are diverting to other European airports - but I have no idea what all their acronyms mean! ;)