The Day Britain Stopped

[Big Cat Handler]

Did anyone out there watch this BBC docu-drama last night? Website at bbc.co.uk/britainstopped if you missed it. Having seen the programme, and read through the site, I'm wondering if anyone has had anything similar to the incident at Heathrow happen to them. Obviously it would dramatically lower capacity, but would pilots feel safer with single runway ops at major airports?

[Notso Fantastic]

It were a bit queer weren't it? Why would anyone decide to drive past LHR, on the day of a railstrike, pop into central London, then drive out again to LHR for their flight? Deserved to get wiped out!
I found the scene of the collision moving- particularly the ATC girl as she realised what was happening.
In 32 years ops at LHR, nothing remotely similar. We must get out of the train of thought that LHR is the busiest in the world etc. I stood on the ground at O'Hare once on a lovely evening and counted 25 sets of lights in the twilight all very close to O'Hare and all using the FIVE available runways. LHR doesn't even come close. I've had a LHR ATC controller sit behind me watch with fascination JFK airport. I told him we would be 'cleared to land' with several ahead of us- he didn't believe me. I saw his face when we were cleared to land and we could count 3 ahead still to land and one touching down.
Did you see that nasty program 'The Real Mile High'. It consisted completely of a set of very queer and nasty cabin crew (and the Editor of the Sunday Sport) bragging about what a wild time they had and smirking about the different ways they can 'fix' peoples' food they don't like and slam their digestive systems with eye drops. Now that was a real video nasty!

[18greens]

I have a couple of questions about that. I know it was only a program but..

1) In the event of a missed approach what is the procedure for avoiding the aircraft taking off next to you? Is there a number of miles to travel before turning across the other runway.

2) Why was the approach controller kicking herself? It seems odd that it is down to the approach controller to tell the tower to do something about it. Tower has radar and eyes don't they. If the ac had been handed over to the tower did the tower not know how far apart they were.

As for driving into london and out again well would you do that on any day?

[Notso Fantastic]

Why the Bilbao was turning left after taking off easterly is a mystery, but I know the point they were trying to make.
There is a departure from 09R that has you turning left track 054 at 2 miles to intercept the LON 074 (from memory chaps!). This could conflict with a go around from 09L, but mostly the go arounds seem to turn you away from the other runway quite sharpish.

[Thunderbug]

Folks

Yep the Bilbao flight should have been going south, but there are though departures to the North-east (Buzard, & Brookmans Park). These track 053 degrees at LON 2d. This track takes them across the centre-line of RW 09L. To cope with this the go-around from RW09L is as follows: Climb to 3000'. Straight ahead until passing 1580' or I-AA 0d (i.e RW09L threshold) whichever is later then left onto Track 040 degrees. This puts both aircraft on diverging tracks.

The lessons have been learnt. The go around tracks used to be straight ahead, but this changed following a near miss a few years back.

And if that doesn't work you also have TCAS to stop metal scrapping on metal.

Heathrow going to single runway causes utter chaos. It has happened before. In the last few years both BA & VS have had aircraft stranded on the runway for long periods of time. What happens is that the aircraft on the ground at LHR get huge start up delays. The guys in the air hold if they have the endurance or divert. Some longhaul services have ended up in Cardiff and Newcastle. Aircraft on the ground elsewhere are held using slots that control the flow of traffic into LHR to match the availble capacity. Chaotic and frustrating, but safe!

It was a very clever program, raising a good number of issues, but failed in that the plot had a similar number of holes.

The sight of a BA tailfin lying in that field left me cold. :uhoh:

T'bug

[Memetic]

Anyone from BA or CSA (??) know if their company gave approval for the programme to use their names for the downed aircraft?

Not legally required as far as I know however I would be surprised if any cooperation had been given as I can see no company benefit from this. (Unless it was avoiding a "BA refused...")

I watched the whole thing, but was more engaged by picking holes in the plot than by the story.

[Thunderbug]

Memetic

The Beeb did not get any assistance from BA. The following was released by the company last tuesday morning.

"The BBC2 will broadcast tonight at 9pm a mock documentary drama entitled "The Day Britain Stopped". The programme depicts a day of transport gridlock in Britain. The story line includes a national rail strike, congested motorways and a fictional mid air collision over Hounslow caused by errors made by air traffic controllers. One of the aircraft involved is in British Airways' colours. It is important to stress that this programme is fictional and we do not endorse its content. The airline was not approached either to take part in the programme or indeed give permission to use British Airways branding. In the programme there is no suggestion of fault on the part of British Airways in relation to the mid-air crash. We have urged the BBC, however, to make clear the fictional basis of the programme and to ensure that it is not misleading by implication. The broadcast of the programme comes at a particularly unhelpful time for an industry already facing a number of major challenges. We have made clear to the BBC's senior management that the safety of British Airways customers and staff is always our utmost priority. Plus, we regard UK air traffic controllers as among the finest and most professional anywhere in the world and we have the utmost confidence in them."

'nuf said......:mad:

T'bug

[Notso Fantastic]

Here's the latest:
"We did take legal advice. In light of that advice, along with the
implications of raising the programme's profile by starting such action and
that there was no suggestion of fault on the part of British Airways, we
decided not to try and stop the transmission.

However, we made strong representations to the Director General of the BBC,
Greg Dyke, and to the programme's executive producer, Peter Horrocks,
regarding the use of our brand, the misleading implications about air
traffic movements at Heathrow and the inaccuracies surrounding the mock
mid-air crash.

We understand National Air Traffic Services is considering making a formal
complaint and we are now considering lending our support."

I think it's a poor show to take respected brands (BA & NATS) and virtually besmirch their reputations with such a fictionalised documentary and such gaping errors. The adverse publicity is almost as bad as the real event. There have been many developments that have obviously passed the authors by! It wasn't fair.

[BOAC]

There are now 3 threads running on this programme. Think you'd all do better either on the ATC thread (recommended) or Aircrew Notices.

Make that 4! There's one on JB:{