Several years ago I witnessed one particular departure that literally had about 300 feet of runway left. I am aware of another person who has seen something similar and who too was concerned.
I was so concerned that I sent the airport an email saying that these short take offs are portentialy a safety hazard!
LTN Man is right that there should be sufficient runway lengh available in the event of an aircraft developing a fault during its take-off run. Why they allow short take-offs is in my mind wrong.
Dannyboy, I have witnessed 4 Boeing 747's at Luton over all these years. In fact two of them were chartered to bring in football supporters. They were both full in terms of passengers but the return flight was not particularly long so using the 7086ft runway was not a problem. In addition I have seen the big Russian Antanov 124.
There have been several near misses over many years with Boeing 727'S. They are regarded simply as mid sized jets, so its not the size that particurly matters but the engine power-and making sure its cargo is correctly distributed throughout the cabin!
Looking at all the media hype and in particular these anti-airport campaigners who continue to feed NON-FACTUAL stories on their web sites, I think we should have a LOVE LUTON AIRPORT EXPANSION GROUP!
