Land ASAP...
On the 31st of Jan, you conducted your own inquiry into a VS A340 incident and published it here:
<<Virgin A340 runway excursion. Well done.
It would appear that last night LHR was made single runway due to a Virgin A340 taxying off at the threshold of 27R. This happened late evening (10 'ish)
Thought I'd pass on my thanks to the crew involved as it quadrupled all workload for those who already had 1 hour delays in BNN/LAM/BIG/OCK. Before all you all jump on me, let me state that many other crews had taxied at an appropriate speed whilst lining up and therefore managed to remain on the paved surface.
Secondly, let me also thank BAA who have categorically refused repeated requests by LHR airlines to set up a remote de-icing operation at LHR so that they can cope a little better with such extreme weather. Can I suggest they invest a little time and money and go for a jolly to OSL/ARN/HEL etc to see how things can work on days like yesterday.
Thirdly and on an unsarcastic note, to all those staff who stayed on those extra hours so that 'us up there' weren't left stranded, a big thankyou. Especially the one T1 BA dispatcher left at LHR, Matt, who had the un-enviable task of meeting 10 more aircraft at 0215 this morning. Also the ATCO who was providing ground/tower at midnight, dual frequency and quite likely operating a shift length that would make ones eyes water. Well played fella!>>
The AAIB, after a little more analysis than you, have published this:
http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/bulletin/jul03/pdf/gvsky.pdf
I've been searching for the bit in there about the crew "taxying at an inappropriate speed"... but don't seem to be able to find it...?? Heavy hints that the taxiways could have been deiced more, particularly when the fire trucks would not even approach close to the aircraft because they were concerned about sliding into it... and the whole area had to be deiced before even a coach could get near...
NoD
PS I do so later you apologised for some of the comments, so this post really to highlight the AAIB report... hope we all take the lessons from there!