Couple of VS's diverted into Man today.

So I was at work today and we were being hammered by the naff weather down in Gatwick. I had a nose around to see if other airlines were having their pants pulled down and the following unravelled..

The VS44(from vegas) and VS16(cant remember), were diverting into Manchester enroute to LGW.I pulled up the radar system we use and there is was, the VS44 on finals. So I looked out the window, and there it was, VROY. The VS16 was VLIP as I recall from looking in the ATC database. The stangest thing was, the 44 landed, taxied all the way back to the threshold of 06L and then took off again?!! (As the VS044A) Looking at it's flight history, It went all the way down to London, did a 180 and came back to MAN, landed, took off again and then flewmback down to Gatwick! Must of had alot of alternate fuel left!

All in all, a busy day for VS OPS and a good giggle for me.

Thought I'd share that with you.

VLIP eventually took me to Orlando on the VS015 that day, departing at 15:30 - three hours late [}:)].

Could have been worse... think delays, travel city direct/ air atlanmta style!

How bad does the weather have to be to force an alternate? I thought LGW had CAT3 landing, meaning the weather would have to be seriously atrocious to close the airport...

Thats what I was thinking. The weather was down to 0feet overcast and I can't remember the fog. Its possible that the CAT3 equip on the aircraft was tech. Possibly that Gatwick arrivals required him to hold for 40 mins until fog cleared and that they hadn't enough fuel to hold for that amount of time?

Hmm.. I guess so. There must be lots of reasons that lead to a divert decision. Are there any pilots on VFlyer.. or do we need to venture into the scary world of PPRUNE?!