Airline Low Vis T/O PROC

[A320ECAM]

The low visibility has been kicking off many delays and cancellations here and there around Europe.

I was speaking to a pax onboard the flight yesterday and they told me about a situation they had last week.

They were flying with a particular Hungarian LCC and their evening flight was delayed 2 and 1/2 hours due to freezing fog. The weather had improved several times throughout the delay but eventually they were all offloaded and the flight was cancelled.

Now that is a little understandable, however they claimed that whilst they were onboard and delayed, two separate aircraft (a RYR and an EZY) turned up on stand, pax disembarked, new pax embarked and then both the flights took off. The passengers onboard the delayed aircraft were confused as to why their flight was still at the gate delayed due to FRFG AND two other aircraft had arrived and departed again? A pax asked the cabin crew who claimed that both flights had taken off "illegally".

I find this quite odd and didn't really have an answer for the pax.
Any suggestions?

[B737900er]

It can depends on many factors, for e.g Depends the de-ice fluid being approved with the airline. The visibility required for take off.

[ajd1]

Crew qualification perhaps; many possible reasons.

[fireflybob]

Also different operators can have different weather minima dependent on aircraft type, whether cleared for low viz ops and also as has been stated crew qualification.

New Captains often have to apply higher minima until they have accrued a certain number of hours in command.

A pax asked the cabin crew who claimed that both flights had taken off "illegally".


I very much doubt it!

[Chesty Morgan]

No FZFG restriction on the 737 either.

[PEI_3721]

Check engine limitations re fan icing in FZFG.
Airframe limits re deicing fluid, hold-over time and 'type' of fog; droplet size vs air temp (wet or dry fog).

[testpanel]

I once worked for an airline that did not have officially low-vis procedures "in the books".

Because of that we were limited to CATI approaches AND minimum 400 meters for T/O....