View Full Version : How Long were you delayed by the computer glitch
Desk Driver
10th Apr 2002, 07:14
With the Glitch at west drayton today I'm lucky to be able to cancel my trip to NCL. But I was just wondering how long you were delayed today
Desk Driver
10th Apr 2002, 07:20
A computer failure at a key air traffic control centre is causing flight delays.
The failure, at about 6am, was at the West Drayton centre in west London.
It resulted in flight data normally produced electronically had to be prepared by hand.
A spokesman for Heathrow airport said: "A problem with NATC computers in West Drayton meant they had to go on to some sort of manual process.
"This has had a knock-on effect and we are experiencing a handful of delays on departures of up to two hours on both long-haul and domestic flights.
"Heathrow is still open."
borrowed from Annanova.com (http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_563458.html)
BBC Breakfast News reporting delays to outbounds at LHR of around 2 hours.
BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1920000/1920527.stm)
cloudnein
10th Apr 2002, 07:57
Yep, i'm glad that the problems didnt affect Gatwick. I work in the IDL in the north terminal and we havent had any delays posted yet. ;)
Pandora
10th Apr 2002, 08:10
Flying westbound across Europe at the crack of dawn this morning we decided that we would be in for a telling off if we arrived 40min early on a 1hr 30min sector 125kt tailwind!) so we slowed to M.69. Nearly choked on my breakfast when Maastricht asked us where we would like to consider as a diversion. Flew a hold in the middle of nowhere for 10mins and then were told that Heathrow were back to normal. Slowed in descent to 220kts as far out as we could, still arrived 15mins early. :eek:
sharpshot
10th Apr 2002, 08:51
Longest delay out of EGBB appears to have been 2 hrs 27 mins.
Think computer glitch related to Xponder codes!
Few Cloudy
10th Apr 2002, 11:30
Pandora,
Who would have given you the telling off for arriving early?
Barcli
10th Apr 2002, 15:57
2 hrs 7 mins this am from sou to Brux
sickBocks
10th Apr 2002, 16:58
Delayed 45mins out of MAN for LHR mid-morning due to late arrival of a/c. Then had to hold at OCK for a while. Arrived 1 hour 10 mins late.
sB
Wycombe
10th Apr 2002, 20:21
Good job by Capt Eric "all 4 engines have failed" Moody on Radio 5 this morning.
Attempts at sensationalist "this must be dangerous" journalism well and truly cut off in their tracks.
....."well in fact this is quite common, it just means the flow of aircraft gets slowed down and I might be a bit later than I expected on the golf course!!"
Brilliant.:) :)
chippy63
11th Apr 2002, 07:14
Great flight on BA856 from Bucharest to LHR yesterday. Took off on time, landed about 25 mins early. Decent load factor, too. Excellent, even the M3 traffic was running smoothly.
Thanks, BA
Pandora
11th Apr 2002, 08:34
Few Cloudy,
I have no idea who it is exactly, suffice to say someone gets upset if you start cutting 50% off the scheduled time for the flight (possibly because if everyone did it it would mess up the landing slots). I know long haul pilots who have received a letter for being too early after the jet stream turned out to be a lot stronger than forecast.
Fraudsquads
11th Apr 2002, 21:30
Surely you can't be penalised for arriving early if the wx is more than favourable? If the scheduled departure time is met and you beat the clock you won't have the fuel to hold for your scheduled arrival time.
Better to get rid of the pax and finish your day if you're on longhaul than fart about getting dizzy at FL??? even if you have to take a remote stand.
but what do I know!!?
FS
Desk Driver
12th Apr 2002, 10:09
There are other issues to arriving early than just saving fuel.
I know Landing charges can differ, Gate utilization and even staff can be problems. We had a carribbean flight land 80 minutes early last year and we had no ground staff on duty at all. Luckily our ground handlers were very efficent although rather annoyed.