Spectators Balcony (Spotters Corner)If you're not a professional pilot but want to discuss issues about the job, this is the best place to loiter. You won't be moved on by 'security' and there'll be plenty of experts to answer any questions.
I was woken up the early hours of Wednesday morning by a very loud, seemingly very low airplane. It sounded like an engine was "surging", at least it was making funny noises. I remembered the time was shortly before 4am so I went to Plane Finder ? Flight Radar | Aircraft Tracker | Live Flight Tracking and saw what was around at that time.
Flight BCS6411, Heathrow to Leipzig was around at that time. At 03:40 (ish) it makes a 180 degree turn back from Aleysbury heading to London Luton and lands there. I reckon I heard it in trouble, any way to check what happened? Google didn't help me much!
Flightradar24 shows this as being inbound to Luton from Leipzig and making a normal approach from over Ipswich going west and possibly turning for an easterly landing at Luton.A300 Freighter of DHL.
If you want to know what aircraft flew over your head, giving your location as "North East" isn't a lot of help.
Notwithstanding what PlaneFinder or FlightRadar24 might say, BCS6411 made a straight-in approach to 26 at Luton, landing at 0348 local yesterday morning.
So whatever you saw or heard performing strange manoeuvres, it wasn't that.
Last edited by DaveReidUK; 3rd Aug 2012 at 15:14.
Reason: typo
"If you want to know what aircraft flew over your head, giving your location as "North East" isn't a lot of help." - You're not wrong. It's an old account I forgot I had registered and the location details where correct when the account was created, I currently live in Luton.
"Notwithstanding what PlaneFinder or FlightRadar24 might say, BCS6411 made a straight-in approach to 26 at Luton, landing at 0348 local yesterday morning." - The origination and destination data threw me, coupled with the tight turn from the FlightRadar site and the fact I was woken up by noise..... I was putting things together.
"So whatever you saw or heard performing strange manoeuvres, it wasn't that." Thanks.
A freighter coming into / out of LHR at 0340 is unlikely also due to the Night Jet Ban.
Well yes and no.
It's a misconception that there is a "Night Jet Ban" at LHR. Instead, there is a night quota which allows for, on average, 15-16 movements per night, and the airlines that have grandfather rights to that quota tend to use the allowance for early-morning (0430-0600) arrivals, so freight flights don't get a look in during the night period.
