Maybe they had a small fire?

Probably, 411A, because arrivals and departures at Cairo amount to stuff all compared to LHR so controlling half a dozen aircraft from a van is quite plausible, trying to control the arrival and departures at LHR without comprehensive GMC and approach radar would probably lead to a disaster.

Nice to see that you are still so seriously jealous of the high quality of control at LHR though, (and throughout the UK).:ok:

I'm glad to hear all is well at LHR... Would love to know the imbecile that set off the alarm though, keeping 235 pax happy locked onboard an aircraft, who have been delayed... and delayed... and delayed again, because we were grounded and couldn't push back was not the easiest of experiences! You guys that sit in the birds nests and the pointy ends deserve credit when it comes to dealing with difficult situations... When you're a member of 5 crew in that cabin with 235 angry faces glaring at you.... it's a bit difficult! Just hope the fool that caused such expense and trouble receives their just desserts!

What happens to the people on approach talking to tower?

Bestonboard.
Why would 235 pax all be angry?
People need to lighten up and realise that things go wrong sometimes.

Last evening I was on BD237 from EMA to BRU and we had to divert to Ostend due to to handling agent going on strike in BRU. Only 8 pax but we just shrugged and said what next.
Taxi to BRU, arrived 4 hours late and now going to try to claim the cost back.

False alarms happen from time to time in almost every building. How on earth can you "fix" a false alarm several years before it happens?

I don't really understand what you are trying to say - although it does appear that you are just determined to make some sort of point.

Anybody got any pictures of the Singapore A380 that was parked on stand 171 that diverted from LHR?

Tower Evacuation
 

The Ozzies have got it right with the control tower at Sydney. They have an external helter-skelter arrangement to permit rapid evacuation. I tried to find a photo of it; maybe somebody has one?

egypt vs UK?
 

I'll play;

because traffic density is different between Heathrow and Cairo?

because safety standards are different between UK and Egypt?

because years have gone by and its different now?

Try this

JetPhotos.Net Photo » YSSY Control Tower Airport by Andrew McLaughlin

With the proper type of fire alarm/confirmation equipment installed in many buildings (and control towers) in the USA.

Of course, this does not prevent a determined individual from pulling a fire alarm lever without due cause.
In the latter case, jail time is normally available for the perp, if identified.

Now, for the busiest airport in the UK to have no back-up ATC plan seems to me to have been rather....well, poor planning from the get go.
I would expect, for example, that emergency electrical power is available in the event that the mains power becomes unserviceable (a design feature), so...why not a back up plan if the building becomes unavailable?

Making excuses seems hardly appropriate for such a vital ATC function.

Here's a photo from Xenedis Photography

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2252/...b7cc2f80ee.jpg

EDIT: Beaten!

Nice to see LGW were fully prepared for the arrival of the 380.

"Erm, if you wouldn't mind holding there old chap while we go aout and measure the taxiways"

:}

Good to see the airfield management put a great deal of thought and effort into the situation before declaring themselves as suitable for A380 diversions. The fact that the a/c might want to leave the runway and park up on a stand at some point clearly comes as a startling surprise. :ugh:

Equally, handlers had no idea where to position the steps, and being unable to communicate with the flight deck, had to relay messages via the LGW ground freq. Didn't the crew have the freq for their handling co?

Altogether a slick and impressive operation. Not.

411A - what makes you think there isn't a contingency plan? There is a fully fledged comprehensive plan to provide ATC services in the event of a tower evacuation involving moving all operational staff to the Contingency VCR and running the operation from there.

Believe it or not, it takes time to evacuate people, count everyone out, collect all the equipment required and then drive all the staff to the new location, set up the equipment and resume the operation. :ugh: :ugh:

Well now, timelapse, that sounds better.
Now all the folks at LHR have to do is actually use the plan (on short notice) that (hopefully) is in place.:rolleyes:

I glanced out my window last night and noticed a Thai Air 747 doing a missed approach from 200ish ft. By the time I got the radio onto 27L they were telling the next plane (a Shamrock) to go round. Then "Tower is being evacuated. Aerodrome Service Ends." (I think). Then silence. However 40 secs later the Thai made two forlorn calls to Heathrow Tower -guess he hadn't heard hadn't heard there was nobody home! Last saw him at 2000ft heading off towards Terminal 5....

To save money, fire alarms these days often use radio rather than fireproof wires. Result is that because there aren't any dedicated frequencies for this application, the possibility of a false alarm is fairly high. One method is to 'poll' each sensor and if no answer is received after a number of polls, to 'alarm'. So a blocked radio channel can easily lead to a false alarm.

I was travelling back to LHR from GLA last night. You don't hear it said often, but kudos to the BA Captain who came out to the face the hordes both in the terminal building and in the Terraces lounge, when lets face it they didn't have a whole heap of information to tell us. But he was open, honest, and promised to keep us informed - can't ask for much more than that.

And kudos also to ATC and BA Ops. To be honest, being on only a domestic flight at 6.30pm, due into LHR which is bad at the best of times but must be horrid after having been been completely closed for an hour or so, I'll be honest and say I fully expected to spend another night in GLA. In the end, it was only about 2 hours delay; struck me as an absolute result.

I was in LHR last night when it all kicked off waiting in T5. Luckily the BA870 to Budapest already had an aircraft available, unlike 8 or 9 other flights which had to be cancelled.

BA seemed to handle it fairly well, although the screens were stuck at 'Enquire Airline' for a good 20 minutes before they all began to actually display cancelled one by one. Customer Services only had a few minutes waiting time to get to someone to find out what was happening, with PAX on cancelled flights being escorted down through either A12 or A1 to collect their luggage before then being sent up to Customer Services in Zone E. The line to get out of A12 though must have run to a couple of hundred people at least.

Those infront of me finding out information from Customer Services were told they'd get a full refund, accommodation and rebooking. One of the BA agents did suggest that flights were being cancelled either down to the desire to prevent later disruption, or that if they ran flights the delay would mean they'd be flying into Germany too late (?)

On the other hand, although 870 was going there was no information made available on screens until 25 minutes after the scheduled departure, eventually leaving around 90 mins late - though, fairplay, it's the first time I've actually heard them apologise onboard for a delay

Can anyone Confirm were the A380 parks>?

I heard it goes of FR and onto the holding area near 08R/L

Is this true or is there a gate or parking stand were it can fit?