It was 'dry' snow and not much sign of slush even on the second day of it here in Denmark.
But yesterday with G-EUPM - no sign of any braking skids whatsoever, just fresh tyre tracks down to the bare earth??
Now Denmark isn't actually the frozen North. Billund is actually further south than Edinburgh (just!).
I was out on my trusty Raleigh in falling snow earlier today, and even on snow covered cycleways and crossing main highways ... I didn't slip or slide even once, even on my summer City Bike tyres, or encounter anything I'd yet call "slush". After I had passed, my trusty bicycle had in fact wet its tyres all the way through to the tarmac leaving a meandering tarmac trail for all to follow, a bit like FR5172 did yesterday, perhaps, two minutes before BA804 arrived, except with less meandering?
So whats this greatly reduced braking at taxiway edges stuff? Did G-EUPM even actually attempt any serious braking before it came to rest? The tracks shown in
NutLoose's photo don't show any sign of braking skid, do they?
I remember may moons ago a lowly DR400 cleared customs at Biggin Hill. Not its passengers and crew, but the whole nose and powerplant and one wing of the aircraft whilst under quite some power during an attempted turn on the apron in front of the customs building (failed turn obviously)! Someone said it was Butch Cassidy's hole in the wall gang, but we knew better ...
A steering problem known only to those familiar with the potential antics of a weird system of springs and dampers used on that particular type was at the root of it ... no hydraulics to speak of.
But this A319 ... what exactly is the real story? Of course we sympathise with the crew because there but for the grace etc., which is why I exclaimed 'Bugger' in the first post, but let's not dress it up in tones more mysterious than it needs to be. I bet the private BA Pilots forum contains the answer - oh wait a minute - they haven't got one on PPRuNe anymore ...
So as PPRuNe's just a rumour mill for the initiated, we'll have to do our best to guess. Is it then that the thing
- Got out of control in a taxiway turn due to an unlucky dusting of the wrong type of snow, or
- Got out of control in a taxiway turn due to a mechanical or hydraulic steering (and braking?) failure
- Didn't get out of control, just ended up in an unlucky less than ideal controlled state off piste with feathers (spoilers) ruffled?
That suggestion that the snow caused braking action problems is surely wobbly? Have a look again at
the webcam just outside the airport and compare snapshots of today's snow with yesterday's whilst you still have the chance. (You can only look back 48 hours or so). It's colder today than yesterday, but starting overnight 6.-7. Feb, I suggest the snow and wind has been pretty piffling so far cf. real frozen North standards!