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Plane is forced to abort landing twice



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Published Date: 30 April 2008
A GRANDMOTHER was among 300 passengers on a Flyglobespan flight which had two aborted landings at Edinburgh Airport.
Rosie Blackley had asked to move to the front of the plane as she had felt ill on her way back from Lanzarote, with husband Harry.

The flight had been delayed half an hour before take off but had made up five minutes in the air and the passengers
were bracing themselves for a landing at 2.35am on Monday.

It was due to land on a temporary runway as the main one is closed at night until November for major resurfacing works. However, the temporary runway does not have an instrument landing system which gives precision radio and lighting guidance to approaching aircraft.

The plane was diverted to Glasgow.

Mrs Blackley, 61, from Penicuik, in Midlothian, said: "It was still dark. I could see the black clouds beneath us and there was a lot of turbulence.

"As we descended I could see the runway lights then, all of a sudden, the pilot pulled up. We were practically vertical. Everyone gasped and started mumbling to themselves.

"Five minutes later he went down again and then shot back right up."

A spokesman for BAA, which operates Edinburgh Airport, said: "This has not been a big problem. We don't have many passenger flights coming in at night at Edinburgh."

A Flyglobespan spokeswoman added: "We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience. However, safety is always our primary concern."





The full article contains 251 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 30 April 2008 10:40 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Scotland's airports
 
1

Filled Rolls,

Edinburgh 30/04/2008 12:09:49
Dog bites man?
2

Claire Dunbar,

Edinburgh 30/04/2008 12:47:21
Did someone get paid to write this non-story?
3

Plane Sailing,

Bathgate 30/04/2008 12:48:52
Mrs Blackley 'the pilot pulled up. We were practically vertical.' What was she travelling in, a space rocket?? And 'Five minutes later he went down again and then shot back right up'. That's some world record where the pilot aborted and managed to circle round in five minutes to attempt landing again! A bit OTT or the usual world class journalism of the Evening News!
4

Sandy5012,

Edinburgh 30/04/2008 13:12:05
As I posted earlier, to fit 300 passengers on a Boeing 737 would be a tight squeeze as it only has 150 seats or so! "Go-arounds" are safe and are well-practised by flight crews, and the angle of climb would have been no more that it is on a normal take-off. So although such an event can be a bit disturbing when it is first encountered, it is very unlikely that the aircraft was in any danger at all.

The runway on which landings at night are taking place due to runway resurfacing is not a "temporary" one - it is a "secondary" runway and is used quite often when wind conditions allow as it can cut flying times by a useful amount.
5

Annoyingboi,

Edinburgh 30/04/2008 13:25:52
No chance of there having been 300 passengers on a Globespan flight
6

Alternative (High Octane) Fuel Head,

Edinburgh 30/04/2008 13:32:27
"...we were practically vertical..."

I doubt it. Passenger jets cannot climb at anything near vertical.

At least there was a reason for all this happening---unlike normal when they try to blame delays in Edinburgh-Southampton flights on floods in the Midlands.
7

Chris2004ad,

Edinburgh 30/04/2008 14:02:32
...and the fact that she is a grandmother is relevant because...? If everyone had felt ill and been moved to the front then I guess the plane may have gone 'vertical'... what is so beneficial about sitting at the front from a health perspective, or am I missing something...? Honestly, this is really a non-stater of s story.
8

tomi,

30/04/2008 14:09:12
Good work by the flight crew!!

The pilot was right in what he did. He was obviously concerned about the conditions for a save landing, he tried twice, and then decided to divert to Glasgow.

With Edinburgh airport becoming so busy, does it not need another full runway?
9

GBscot,

Idaho Falls 30/04/2008 15:05:49
One wonders if the pilot was certified for ILS if it were available?
#8 Edinburgh does indeed need another full runway.
10

David Thomson,

Livingston 30/04/2008 15:29:05
#8 + #9 Don't be so stupid. Edinburgh Airport needs another runway like I need another morgage..!!! Busy, it's full of little Puddle Hopper planes throughout the day, with as the spokesman says very little night flights. You get the occasional 757 during daylight, not even a widebody on the near horizon..Another runway....Get real, that's a great way to spend our hard earned cash, tell u what..Why don't we build an underground heavy rail station while we're at it..If the Labour party ever manage to oust Mr Salmond [Pigs may fly] Suggest it to them.
11

Tortolano,

edinburg 30/04/2008 16:36:30
I was actually on this flight and lets just say that this woman is from the JK Rowling school of facts.
The plane was about 3/4 full. There was no turbulance of any note and at no point did i see any landing lights (the cloud was extremely low). The angle did seem a bit more than at take off but it was hardly vertical. There was also very little "gasping" that I could hear. The pilot announced he was giving it "one more go" so people were more apprehensive next time round (about 10 -15 minutes later) and most people were more hacked off at landing at Glasgow than scared.
12

Porty Boy,

Edinburgh 30/04/2008 16:46:23
Yes indeed, what a non-story. And, as commented on, some amazing howlers by the reporter.

It's not possible to make (within five minutes) another approach to Edinburgh's Runway 30 at night - pilots will get a 'Surveillance Radar Approach', which basically means Air Traffic Control shouting out the height they should be add at various stages of the approach and adjusting accordingly. If they can't see the runway clearly at four miles out, they must "go around". Taking another go at it will take at least another ten minutes.

This runway is not "temporary" as described in the article, but was in fact the "main" runway until the present one was built in the sixties.

Readers may be interested to know that Edinburgh used to have three runways - the third runway was used by light aircraft training pilots; this permitted Edinburgh to be the only airport in the UK, apart from Heathrow, that allowed simultaneous landings and take-offs on two runways at the same time. "Progress" (or the BAA's definition of it) dictated that the third runway be dug up in 1999 and turned into a car park, thus forcing the training aircraft to use the main runway, with resulting delays (to this day) for commercial flights. Progress indeed.

One can only hope that the BAA itself will be dug up at some point in the near future.
13

Mike n Irene,

Edinburgh 30/04/2008 18:05:21
We were on this flight. I am not sure what the grandmother was on?
We were in cloud and it was dark so how could she say we were near vertical? The flaps were fully deployed so I suppost the climb angle may have been a bit different butthere was no way to judge it.
The flight was also very smooth, i.e. no turbulance!
the gasping she heard may have been me groaning at the thought that we had to divert but at least it was the safe and correct thing to do. It only added three hours to the trip, so unless you were being met at the airport, who cares
14

Nancy Green-eyes,

30/04/2008 18:25:20
Another anti Edinburgh airport story, I wasn't there myself but it doesn't sound like it rates coverage by the EEN. The lady hadn't been feeling well and they were arriving home at half past 2 in the morning,can't say I'm at my most alert that time in the morning, things maybe seemed more distressing to her than they would normally.
15

Kirsty Boyd-Williamson,

New Town 30/04/2008 22:02:43
"....practically vertical" my asre! The pitch attitude is likely to have been around 15 degrees during this perfectly normal procedure.
The main difficulty for passengers is that flight crews are pretty busy during the initial stages of such procedures and have not the time to offer to the passengers an explanation of what is happening.
16

Peter Wyngarde,

01/05/2008 03:02:20
Serves her right for flying Globespan if you ask me...
17

Sandy5012,

Edinburgh 01/05/2008 09:14:59
#9 All commercial pilots will be cleared for ILS use as are those who fly business jets. Even humble PPLs can take Instrument Ratings that will allow them to fly in cloud and use ILS.

#10 I agree that it's too early to think of another runway, but the place is Scotland's busiest airport now, and at peak times can have virtually every parking stand full. Widebody aircraft will feature on this summer's charter flights and were daily visitors when Delta were running their service to Atlanta.
18

Mark,

03/05/2008 23:33:03
Seen as the aircraft used for this flight holds around 140 passengers, I can’t understand how the “journalist” who wrote this story came up with the figure of 300 passengers....
19

Mallory,

Edinburgh 09/09/2008 18:07:11
Excess duty free perhaps?

 

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