Self Loading Freight
1st Dec 2001, 06:21
I popped over to Cork the other day, courtesy of Ryanair (the way things are at the moment, that counts as longhaul). We spent a very long time floating around above Cork, with a diversion to Shannon on the cards, because the place was closed through fog, then open, then closed again. After around 45 minutes, by which time I'd learned not to read threads on Pprune about Ryanair's fuel policy, you could cut the air in the cabin with a blunt plastic knife. Nobody was happy, at first because they thought they'd have to get to Cork from Shannon on the ground, but latterly because it was clear that we'd been shuttling around for far too long.
At this point the captain told the cabin crew to announce we were going to land for sure this time. Only the destination airport wasn't known -- the crew member concerned had been summoned to the front just before they did the 'ten minutes to landing' PA, and on questioning by the (by now very concerned) passengers they admitted that they still didn't know where. But we were definitely landing in ten minutes.
As it happens, we hit Cork in what looked to the untrained eye like glorious visibility. There was a round of applause in the cabin -- most certainly not because of any greaser, as we went down with a thunk and a half -- and that was that.
So, questions: is ORK really that marginal? Is it lacking suitable aids, if so? And what happened on that flight -- was it a 'get into Cork if we can, or abort to Shannon' approach that meant nobody really knew where we were going until we got there?
Recent events have meant that us SLF are jolly nervous when things don't go according to plan. A bit more information on the PA would really not go amiss.
R
At this point the captain told the cabin crew to announce we were going to land for sure this time. Only the destination airport wasn't known -- the crew member concerned had been summoned to the front just before they did the 'ten minutes to landing' PA, and on questioning by the (by now very concerned) passengers they admitted that they still didn't know where. But we were definitely landing in ten minutes.
As it happens, we hit Cork in what looked to the untrained eye like glorious visibility. There was a round of applause in the cabin -- most certainly not because of any greaser, as we went down with a thunk and a half -- and that was that.
So, questions: is ORK really that marginal? Is it lacking suitable aids, if so? And what happened on that flight -- was it a 'get into Cork if we can, or abort to Shannon' approach that meant nobody really knew where we were going until we got there?
Recent events have meant that us SLF are jolly nervous when things don't go according to plan. A bit more information on the PA would really not go amiss.
R