Gatwick runway shut by ice

BBC News reporting that the runway at LGW was shut for a few hours by ice earlier today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/7777142.stm
NB: Note the nice picture of Heathrow!

I bet this has screwed up VS's flying schedule from LGW today.

James

[Darren Wheeler]

Don't they have gritters or de-icers?????

I think the weather in that area caught everyone off guard this morning - Southern had problems with frozen track near to Gatwick.

quote:Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
Don't they have gritters or de-icers?????



Isn't it amazing that Uk Airports are shut for Ice, but Scandinavian Airports operate normally in adverse weather all Winter?

We must be doing something wrong?

quote:Originally posted by McMaddog
I think the weather in that area caught everyone off guard this morning - Southern had problems with frozen track near to Gatwick.


Nothing new there then...[:p]

OMG just looked and none of our LGW flights took off before 3pm this afternoon!!!The GND was 7 hours late! Think my vegas tomorrow is gonna be slightly delayed, at least I can have a lie in, and there's 250 spare seats so not too many irate pax. Really surprised the runway was closed for so long. It's gonna take days for the flying programe ex LGW to recover!

quote:Originally posted by McMaddog
I think the weather in that area caught everyone off guard this morning - Southern had problems with frozen track near to Gatwick.


Frozen leaves on the track no doubt[:D]

Iain

Why cant they just put snow chains on these craft.

alex

quote:Originally posted by goanmad
[quote]Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
Don't they have gritters or de-icers?????



Isn't it amazing that Uk Airports are shut for Ice, but Scandinavian Airports operate normally in adverse weather all Winter?

We must be doing something wrong?


If you look in the gallery under Kittila airport, then you will see by what Goanmad means. I took the photos during a trip up North

[HighFlyer]

I heard this on the radio this morning. As others have said, other countries seem to cope with the ice, and we do tend to get some each Winter, so I really dont get why everything grinds to a halt in the UK.

Thanks,
Sarah

[buns]

quote:Originally posted by McMaddog
I think the weather in that area caught everyone off guard this morning - Southern had problems with frozen track near to Gatwick.


You can say that again - I live some 15 miles away from LGW and woke up this morning to half a centimetere of snow[:0] So there I was in the early hours, clearing the driveway to get the car out[n]

Caused all manner chaos locally

buns

I only live 2 miles from LGW and although there was no snow the roads were covered in black ice. Dangerous enough in a car let alone an aircraft landing on the runway.

quote:Originally posted by goanmad
[quote]Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
Don't they have gritters or de-icers?????



Isn't it amazing that Uk Airports are shut for Ice, but Scandinavian Airports operate normally in adverse weather all Winter?

We must be doing something wrong?

Not amazing at all - we just have the wrong sort of ice [:w]

And we need an airport operator who will de-ice the runway.[}:)]

quote:Originally posted by buns
You can say that again - I live some 15 miles away from LGW and woke up this morning to half a centimetere of snow[:0] So there I was in the early hours, clearing the driveway to get the car out[n]


My dad used to say that 6' of snow was an opportunity for a good drive, and we did.

Half an inch, come on [:p]. Most people would'nt notice [:0].

[Neil]

I thought it was humorous that the excuse given for the large number of problems caused yesterday by the ice was that it 'rained at the wrong time' [ii]

With regards to other countries coping better, we deal a lot with Scandinavia and yes they operate without issues with 1/2 feet of snow let alone an inch or two, but to be fair they know what is coming and when and are well prepared for it. With the 'dodgyness' (best word I could think of) of our weather forecasts it would be almost impossible for us to be prepared or not for a sudden bad turn in the weather. Last week we were told to expect a lot of snow during the rush hour traffic, what did we get, nothing at all [V] so if we had all got our snow chains on it would have be a complete waste of time.

Neil

quote:Originally posted by Kraken

I bet this has screwed up VS's flying schedule from LGW today.

James


Lol no more than usual then!!

My mothers Swedish and she still finds it hard to believe a little bit of ice or snow can bring my country to a standstill!

I was on the Thomas Cook return leg from Luxor due in 2215 Wednesday eve, anyhoo the outward leg returned to gatwick an hour into flight with tech issues and by the time it had another crack at getting to luxor we didnt leave until 0135 luxor time eta gatwick 0420 thurs morn, we landed around 0445 and i recon we were the last plane in before they shut it, how pissed off would we have been after a 9 hours at luxor just to divert to stanstead at the other end, we were verey lucky, one thing i would say is the piliot used full reverse thrust on landing whicjh i thought they didnt do these days !!!

quote:Originally posted by G-VSKY 97
one thing i would say is the piliot used full reverse thrust on landing whicjh i thought they didnt do these days !!!


Instead of the usual proceedure of shouting 'Whoa big fella' [:p]

Iain

It's very easy to knock Britain, and say that other European countries can cope with snow, but I've just come back from seeing Austrian clients in Vienna. They were cursing and swearing about the Austrian inefficiencies, and that the first snow of Winter always causes chaos in their country...

quote:Originally posted by PeterStansfield
It's very easy to knock Britain, and say that other European countries can cope with snow, but I've just come back from seeing Austrian clients in Vienna. They were cursing and swearing about the Austrian inefficiencies, and that the first snow of Winter always causes chaos in their country...




Everytime we have snow, ice, wrong leaves etc etc etc that region grinds to a halt, how can anyone defend that?
The Austrians were moaning about the first snow of winter, we get it everytime some snow/ice hits the deck?
As previously mentioned the Scandinavians can cope with the adverse weather, why are we unable to cope with a tenth of what they get?

When it snows in Europe it snows, not the piddly 2-3cm that the UK normally gets. I know in Yorkshire and in Scotland thay can get good drifts in the country, but in general and on the road network of the UK it is very uncommon.
I always have a giigle when the police say only 'make the journey if it absolutley necessary'. That's work gone for the day then[:D]

Iain

We have just come back on last nights VS076 MCO to MAN. It was just over 2 hours late taking off. When I asked the FSM why, she said it was a knock on from the closure last week of the Gatwick runway as they had sprayed the runway with water instead of de-icer!![ii]

quote:Originally posted by maz
We have just come back on last nights VS076 MCO to MAN. It was just over 2 hours late taking off. When I asked the FSM why, she said it was a knock on from the closure last week of the Gatwick runway as they had sprayed the runway with water instead of de-icer!![ii]

The '76 was only 30 minutes late the previous day!
Supposedly it wasn't water - it was a very weak mix [:w]

[Nottingham Nick]

According to this report on travelbite.co.uk. VS are withholding a £100,000 payment to BAA over this fiasco.

SRB has branded them 'incompetent', for their failure to deal with the cold weather.

Nick

[quote]Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
SRB has branded them 'incompetent', for their failure to deal with the cold weather.

Maybe he should use the same term for BAA management as he used for the Economy: 'F****d'

edit: typo