A Night To Remember...

[Jefferson Starship]

G'day colleagues,

I am sure a number of us have a few stories to share if you were operating on the night of Wednesday, 16th April, when Dubai and the surrounding areas were affected by some extreme thunderstorm activity.

Let's hear some tales - where did you go when DXB and AUH closed for a few hours just before the midnight rush hour?

Regards,
JS

[Hong Kong Layover]

Wish I could comment,however I refrain from doing so. simply due to fact that my identity could be revealed to the watch dogs of my company!...because I've been writting some nice things about them (QR)!

Yes,that was unexpected and rain and wind were devastating. some flight arrivals were delayed and the rest were diverted.

And my friends from DXB called me the next morning and said that the tree's were uprooted by the bad weather. is that realy true?

[Avago]

It was some storm alright - heard that at one stage the controllers at AUH were using handheld radios after a lightning strike took out all the comms.

The disabled aircraft or debris or whatever it was that was blocking 30L at DXB after the storm passed didn't help matters much either. After the airport reopened, we waited at the holding point for about an hour before we could get airborne - at one stage there were 25 aircraft waiting to land, most of them down to min. fuel.

[OmanAir]

20 people killed in the Sultanate in road accidents, flashfloods, drownings, etc. The worst weather hit us on the night between 14 and 15 April. Then again on 16-17. Oman Observer (http://www.omanobserver.com/)
It was fairly bad.

[ferris]

It was one of those rare occasions when you are glad that you work on the ground.
We worked our backsides off at area that night.

[Pam747]

Forturnately I was on a day off and didn't have to operate that night. It did a fair bit of damage to my curtains and carpets though.

[Bullishit]

I was at work that night (on the ground) & it was different,to say the least!

[Flat-Spot]

Yep, I was unlucky enough to have been caught out in the weather. However, I'm not gonna go on about how the weather radar was painting some very interesting shades and shapes of red or how they were packed much too tightly together for my liking, or how after paralleling a squall line for a fair few miles we managed to find a gap big enough to punch through only to find some real nasty stuff hiding behind. What I am gonna go on about is how Ferris and his friends at ATC in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain bent over backwards to vector us or in a lot of cases just let us do what we needed inorder to avoid the weather. Good job under the circumstances.
Thanks a lot guys keep it up!

[ferris]

Cheers Flat-Spot!! Nice to get a thanks every now and again, in generally what is a thankless job.
The R/T loading became so high that it was pointless trying to keep track of who was on what heading. I was just keeping vertical where necessary, or issuing instructions to avoid. The biggest problem is when the holds fill up, then the temporary holds, then holds have to move because of the storm etc etc. you just have nowhere to climb departures, or sqeeze overflights through, or descend into the hold.
I hope the boss (tucked up in his bed during all this) bothers to have a look at the tapes, to see exactly what us "lazy ba5tards" did.:8
Oh well, another war story to bore the trainees with.:rolleyes:

[BahrainLad]

Was sitting in the office at about 1200 local on Wednesday when it went very, very dark indeed. In fact, darker than I've ever known during a thunderstorm.

Well done to all chaps/chapesses who were up there and those helping on the ground. I'm sure you earned your sandwiches!

[cordy]

I work in Abu Dhabi for ADA Aviation flying the Dash8 to the Oil Islands. It started around 9pm with wind and lightning and became worst about 11pm when I was sleeping. I had an early dep the next day so I went to sleep at 10:30. During the night I saw some lighting but did not take it on but when I woke up at 5am the wind and rain was coming down and I mean DOWN. At 6 am my friend pick me up to go to the Airport and it was becoming clear, on our way we saw trees up-rooted and most of the roads had a lot of water. I was laughing to see what 1 night of rain does, as I am from the Caribbean and know what true rain is. When we reached the Airport the wind started to pick up a bit and then it started to get darker. We got a weather report that off shore was bad so we were delayed for sometime. All of a sudden off sore became better andn we were allowed to go, as we went to the aeroplane the rain came down like cats and dogs. I felt sorry for the PAX as they got wet but that is life. We started and departed, lined up on RW31 we got clearance and rolled down the RW. Getting airborn was smooth and I turned the weather radar IT WAS ONLY READ but thank GOD it was not bumpy, we climber to 16,000ft leveled and 3/4 of the way we broked out of the soup.
On our way home it got better and then cleared up:ok:

[ironbutt57]

Right about the time the doggy doo-doo was hitting the fan, I was at FL330 headed east, about 50 south of AUH deviating around the wx, and it looked very exciting from my vantage point..had been at home in fantasy island around 1300hrs lcl when it got so dark I had to turn the lights on in my home to read..and witnessed some of the biggest coldest raindrops I have ever seen in my decade-plus here in the gulf..so yes it was exciting..glad i was not stopping in the uae..heard several high-pitched voiced flightcrews attempting to do just that..bet there was a run on knickers that night at the city centre

[etops777]

we had a 2.5 hours of delay and all the flights were calling the ATC for their start-up clearance. at one time they had 25 airplanes on the ground and 26 in the air. they maintained their composure and got everyone out.

BIG APPLAUSE to everyone of them.:ok:

[4HolerPoler]

Even the mod-bod got caught up in it. Was paxing to DXB on EK. Diverted into AUH ahead of the worst of it. Then the crud from DXB arrived. The rain was going up, not down. Normal reaction from the rabble - they all wanted to climb off in AUH. Crew did a great job. Got into DXB around six hours late. Big wx.

Takes me back to days in Joburg when you're sweating it out in the sim and the thunder outside is so loud you can hear it in the sim and you get this great big smile on your dial and you think "Hey, some dudes working harder than I am!" Glad I wasn't driving that night.

Well done guys. So much hard work just taken for granted by Pete Pax who's upset he's running a little late.

4HP