Originally Posted by
sonicbum
I believe the questions that need to be answered are :
1) Is it confirmed the 3 aircrafts actually declared a mayday fuel or did they opt for a minimum fuel / PAN call and ATC has asked them to squawk 7700 for their own London Area Ops ?
2) In case of a multiple mayday call by 3 aircrafts diverting, what is the root cause ?
Being clear on the above could be helpful.
AFAIK only 1 a/c declared MAYDAY, however 3 others squawked 7700, not at the request of ATC. NONE declared PAN.
As for DIVs it is not uncommon for a named alternate to refuse the DIV, particularly LTMA airports on bad weather days/peak hours. With multiple DIVs at any one time workload becomes very high trying to find a suitable alternative which will accept the DIV as the request routes Aircraft - Terminal Controller/Area Controller - Supervisor - TWR - Airfield OPS and then back again which can (at times) take a lot of time.
Capacity restraints within LTMA airports make the current DIV process unfit for purpose and safety compromising which was realised during the recent storms. This is something the CAA should seriously look at.