Thunderstorms at LHR

[Qwikstop]

Living under the flightpath of LHR - I was wondering how ATC coped with the thunderstorms over West London on Saturday evening? I guess they made a switch to arrivals on 09 during the storm.

[3.5 stripes]

Thankfully it's never happened to me yet, but I know a guy (sounds like a line doesn't it) that got hit by lighting on the approach and he said his eyesight was affected for about 48 hours afterwards. OUCH!

3.5

[MrBernoulli]

... but I know a guy ... that got hit by lighting ...Lighting? Was it an overhead light? Or a standard lamp, perhaps? Who dropped/threw it? :p

[airsmiles]

That's an interesting point actually. What happens if there's a massive storm over London that plays havoc with approaches to the 27 runways? The wind direction might not allow use of the 09's. Does everyone hold or are there contingency holds/routings that come into play?

Many years ago there was a big weather event (as the BBC would say) and early morning transatlantic traffic was stacked up all the way back to GIBSO on the south coast. I've never seen it since so it must have been exceptional. That's the last time I'll see Pan Am 747's holding over Dorset!

[Qwikstop]

Casper - live aircraft tracking (http://casperflights.com/egkk/) - 23rd Apr 2011 @ 1830.

Looks like they made a switch to landing on 09L at around 6.30pm when the storm was over Hounslow/Richmond. Wind was gusty and backing to the SE at the time.

[tom6326]

I sow at least 4-6 go arounds one after the other too! - They sounded busy!

T

[Skipness One Echo]

Haven't they been on 09L arrivals for days?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

airsmiles... Chaos rarely reigns in the LTMA due to weather, but weather avoidance is fairly common. It usually means 5-10 degrees left or right but if a big cell settles over a main stack, aircraft will either be routed to one of the others using standard procedures or they may be held some distance before the hold. E.g. traffic inbound to Bovingdon might be held 10-20 miles northwest remaining under the control of the TMA until the Heathrow Director advises the TMA controller when to take the aircraft out of the hold and transfer it to Heathrow for (possible) radar vectoring around bad weather. Understand that ATC radars do not usually show bad weather so controllers rely on reports from aircrew.

If a cell settles due east or west of the field pilots will decide whether to make an approach. If it is to one side, ATC can often vector aircraft parallel to the ILS until they are clear of the bad weather.

Worst weather I ever saw was a sustainedy wind of 40-50 kts and I still have the grey hairs!!

[airsmiles]

Thanks HD.

I know a few controllers at Swanwick and had the privilegde of seeing the screens first-hand so I appreciate the professionalism in the ATC world. It's interesting to see how it's handled though.

I've always thought sitting next to the Heathrow controller who dove-tails all of those arrivals from the stacks to the final approach would be an amazing experience.