Spanish Air Force disrupts BA Gibraltar landing

[dmburns]

Spanish air force disrupts British Airways flight landing in Gibraltar - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/gibraltar/11206194/Spanish-air-force-disrupts-British-Airways-flight-landing-in-Gibraltar.html)

[Air Smolik]

I understand it was an "incident" though. But I can't find anything on AvHerald or anywhere ...

[No Fly Zone]

If BA is using an A380 for the London-Gibraltar route, perhaps someone will please explain the economics for me. No, a mid-air collision is not a great idea, but ATC and the pilots dealt with the perhaps too close approach. SO help me, I cannot wrap my little brain around an A380 between London and Gibraltar. If that is a seriously important route for BA, perhaps they should have asked for an A380-3, similar to the short route, high-density that Boeing has made for the Japanese market. On a bad day, that flight cannot be more than 75 minutes, more like 50. WTF am I missing? Does BA really have that much traffic to Gibraltar, or are they still 'testing and proving?" Obviously, I'm missing something. Thanks. :ugh:

[Lord Spandex Masher]

Yes, you're missing about two hours of flight time and that it is a stock photo.

[TopBunk]

NFZ

I think your problem is in believing that the reporters have knowledge or care about accurate reporting. Journalist to back room stooge - photo os an aircraft in BA colours required pronto.

[gsky]

I don't think it was an A380. In fact I am pretty sure it was not an A380. the picture was an A380 , but then this is a newspaper article and picture, and they don't have a clue and cannot tell one aircraft from another. Almost certainly was and A320 (family ) aircraft.

[Capetonian]

It's piss poor journalism, stock photo or not. They must have a stock photo of a 320 or whatever BA use on that route.

[Air Smolik]

It was Airbus A320 (G-EUYB) and you can see the exact route here 👉 BA490 - British Airways - Flight history - Flightradar24 (http://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ba490/#4b4040a)

[Basil]

the presence of a Spanish air force jet, . . . . . a Lockheed P3 Orion
I guess we did once call them 'jetprops'.
I believe it's usually an A320.
There's no reason why an 'inappropriate' aircraft should not be used on two or three hour sectors when the training load is high, although an A380 wouldn't be a great idea at Gib for a couple of reasons.

[ATC Watcher]

"Air Traffic Control (ATC) were in contact with both aircraft and the British Airways plane diverted in accordance with standard ATC procedures.
There was at no time any risk to safety."

End of the story. The rest is just hot air to push a political agenda.

[Ian W]

It's piss poor journalism, stock photo or not. They must have a stock photo of a 320 or whatever BA use on that route.

Only A320 and A319 operate out of Gibraltar. I doubt whether an A380 could land on such a short runway, it almost certainly would not be able to take off again.

[Jet Jockey A4]

Journalists are so stupid and inaccurate in their reporting these days.

It's all about sensationalism and money… It does not matter if what they are reporting is correct or not as long as it sells.

[Capetonian]

I remember watching Vanguards appear to be struggling to take off from that runway, obviously they weren't, but as a casual observer it looked as if they used every inch of runway. I believe it's been extended since the 80s.

[Doma]

British Airways (BA) #490 ? 03-Nov-2014 ? EGLL / LHR - LXGB / GIB ? FlightAware (http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW490/history/20141103/0955Z/EGLL/LXGB)

A320:ok:

[TOWTEAMBASE]

I think an A380 to GIB would require the pax to perform an air drop, not sure the rock could welcome the A380 without some.......reworking :)

[ShotOne]

A journo used the wrong pic. Shock horror,!

Is that the only aspect of this story that merits discussion?

[DaveReidUK]

I believe it's usually an A320.

And Friday's BA490 was no exception.

[ImageGear]

A320-232 at 3000' heading 270 normal approach around the bay for RW09 (6000'), vectored away onto 160, 8 miles south of Algeciras, before repositioning on original inbound track. Looks like a fairly sharp avoidance.

[kenparry]

I believe it's been extended since the 80s.

No, it has been this length since the 60s or earlier.

[Dockwell]

Quote " A journo used the wrong pic. Shock horror,!

Is that the only aspect of this story that merits discussion?"


Yes I tend to agree with that, airline was BA, stock photo was BA ! Would we be complaining if for example there was a story about "Starbucks", the story includes a stock photo of a Starbucks sign in London, yet the story is about a Starbucks in Birmingham, Eagle eyed or local people may spot that the photo was taken in London but 99.9% will not ! does it really matter anyway as the story was about a BA plane not a specific type of plane (other coffee shops available ..lol)

PS, why am I not able to quote on here :bored: I dont seem to have the required button !

[paully]

Maybe less to this story than the headline suggests..The Gibraltar Chronicle has reported that the Spanish P3 was transiting Gib airspace, under the control of Seville ATC. which it is entitled to do. At some point it did make an alteration of course, presumably ok`d by Seville because the P3 then contacted Gibraltar ATC (unusual for the Spanish Military) and explained their actions.

At that point the BA flight resumed its flight path to Gib and the P3 continued on out of their area

[barry lloyd]

There is some merit in what you say Dockwell, though the lack of attention to detail, aka laziness, is so typical of journalism today. In my case, I wonder how much of other items which they report and about which I know far less, are inaccurate.

More worrying is this constant harassment by Spain on all fronts which is clearly government backed - if not government inspired. If this continues, the law of averages suggests that it is only a matter of time before something really unpleasant happens, at which point the excrement really will hit the Xpelair.

I see what you say paully, but clearly something was amiss, otherwise the BA flight would not have had to follow the path it did. One imagines the P3 was heading towards the Med, in which case Spain has ample airspace over that area in which to operate without having to apparently enter the minimal airspace over Gibraltar.

[DaveReidUK]

Yes I tend to agree with that, airline was BA, stock photo was BA ! Would we be complaining if for example there was a story about "Starbucks", the story includes a stock photo of a Starbucks sign in London, yet the story is about a Starbucks in Birmingham, Eagle eyed or local people may spot that the photo was taken in London but 99.9% will not ! does it really matter anyway as the story was about a BA plane not a specific type of plane (other coffee shops available ..lol)Well yes and no.

A more reasonable question would be why a journalist who, as the Daily Telegraph's Madrid Correspondent understandably doesn't claim any aviation knowledge, didn't just ask one of her sub-editors or spend 5 minutes on Google before filing her story.

At least then the penny might have dropped that BA fly several different types of aircraft and don't disgorge 450 passengers at a time at GIB. Or maybe even that the P-3 isn't an F/A-18 or a Typhoon.

[Dockwell]

I think the type of plane is irrelivent, However the Airline in the news item was.