Heathrow Terminal Four
Never mind Terminal Five, isn't it about time we sorted out T4? I'm writing this while still fresh in the memory, but I was just doing 121.7 (1315 -1430) and had 8 or 9 in a queue, including two towing aircraft, stretching from Block 93 to the western end of 111. The apron controlling authority then decided to give vacating stands to the two towing planes and the two at the back of the queue. Now, excuse for me for sounding stupid, but how the f*ck am i going to get them there. The concrete south of 27L is extremely limited and moving one holding plane has seriousd repercussions as to how you can manoeuvre the rest. And with the Airfield Authority in the FINITE wisdom not letting us use 85 to cross (no longer a safety issue, just that "they haven't got round to painting some Runway Ahead markings cos they're busy") there is only one way out. Everyone got hugely delayed, I'm sure one BA 777 was waiting for nearly the whole time and was good enough to visit every block in T4 at least once!!
It's not very often I do this but thanks to all the patient LAJ and BAW (and one KLM and ALK) pilots who did their best to help me out and never complained once. However, I'm considering whether to file an overload report because it was unacceptable to all parties concerned. If a serious emergency had appeared on my frequency, I won't count the Air Jamaica that did, it could all have gone tits up.
Anyone involved, or not, care to comment?
P7