Originally Posted by
Driver 170
I live in Edinburgh near the border and where i was it was clear as day. I could see 3 aircraft in a holding pattern at RWY 24 end roughly over the firth of forth. Strange thing though after 10-15 minutes of holding the aircraft’s got vectored towards RWY 06 to land and after a while inbound aircraft then proceeded to RWY 24. Why did it change briefly?
I can't speak for this exact scenario, but it's very possible that the fog was thicker at one end of the runway (as often happens everywhere), so ATC switched to the opposite end to give better touchdown IRVR values. It's the touchdown readings which are much more important for crews. Sometimes it's not possible to do this (large number of outbounds taxying, or lack of ILS capability at one end, or significant noise restrictions for the airport etc), but if it's manageable, it can mean the difference between aircraft landing or diverting elsewhere.