My worry now is for any go-around at Heathrow the passengers on board who have watched the programme are gonna be bricking it.
The truth,
On average we have about 3-4 go-arounds a day at Heathrow. None of them anything special just a normal day.
Because they are a normal occurance we train for them and control them regularly.
Bookworm the missed approach of 09L would turn passing 1500' or passing 0 DME. therefore turning inside the departure. If the was no proactive controller input (as there wasn't in the show) then I and my colleagues are not doing our jobs. The remark about altitude restrictions refer to proactive controller input, that's my job. Any normal occurrance during a shift in the tower needs proactive controller input, that's one of the reasons we're there.
Heathrow learnt an awful lot and changed it's procedures after the very near miss in 1997. I fully agree that our skies and airports are at/over the limit, but the scaremongering in the programme is completely disgraceful.
The programme shows only what we know already the entire transport infrastructure of this country is a shambles thanks to years of lack of investment and no cohesive transport policy.
What would happen if Heathrow closed and there are40 holding? These are the real questions that should be discussed, and I'm happy to do so without closing ranks, denying the problem exists whilst being smug
BillHicksRules,
Your comments are very insulting to a sector of the aviation industry that is passionate about their jobs and the safe conduct of all flights, I can only hope they were made in the heat of the moment.
And,
Can someone tell how they thought that closing a runway because of short staffing would help. It would be very foolish to go single runway with those traffic levels. You would mearly impose inbound flow control and one controller would work both runways with a safe manageble level of traffic, as we do now when we are short staffed.