Originally Posted by
zerograv
You bet !!! Second phase of the Hajj is extremely wild ...
There is no telling how much the aircraft weighs. The Pax bring water (zamzam water), sand, rocks, etc, etc.
Had a departure from Jeddah on a B763 with 300 Pax + Fuel to make it all the way to Mauritania. Saw the 76 climbing at 400 feet per min. Had never seen that before ... and it was not because it was very hot. This was in December, at the end of the day, at sunset.
Good thing that aircrafts are build with some good safety margins ...
lets admit - no departure from JED/MED for Phase 2 can pass a proper scrutiny from A to Z and we all know why. But it is going on for decades and unlikely to change any soon
ps said that it is probably unreasonable to blame Hajj too much on any subsequent incident once you have reached a cruising altitude out of JED