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Old 29th Aug 2012, 23:19
  #1130 (permalink)  
Tapita
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: England
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Thick pax on the ground

.. reading this brings back memories from [coughs] decades ago - LGW and fog: covering on the 'enquiries desk' for PHU staff:

Thick fog - nothing's leaving and i/bs circling, pending diversions to MAN, CDG ..anywhere but LGW.

The slightly scary situation of being alone behind a desk besieged by several hundred increasingly angry people - and calculating the time delay before Security can feasibly cut through the crowd to stop them lynching you.... as emotions start to run high after 3 hours of the same answer ... one emboldened young man becomes 'pack leader' ...

"This is ridiculous - it's just fog! Why can't it land?"
"... (basically) visibility is too low for safety"
"... can't see the runway? That is ABSOLUTE RUBBISH ... I should be up there, it's easy, I could land the plane because I CAN SEE the runway"
(Crowd starts muttering in agreement and lurching en masse towards desk)
"You can see the runway?"
"Yes, IT'S RIGHT THERE!"
(points past through window to darkened landscape outside and the orange sodium traffic lights of the northbound A23 stretching away for a distance of 100 yards"
"Erm, that's a road..."
"NO it is not! It's the runway and you're trying to bullsh*t that aircraft can't land on it? I could land a plane on that!"
"Well, happily for your passengers, you are not up there - and they are in the capable hands of an experienced Captain who lands on runways, not the A23 London to Brighton road! .... Next!"
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