Garuda Indonisian at LHR
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Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Farnham, UK
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Garuda Indonisian at LHR
Garuda Indionisian A340 being pushed back on to the parking area at the Royal Suite (VIP area) at LHR yesterday afternoon. Did he overshoot and miss his parking position (and the band, red carpet etc...) or was that the plan all along?
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Dubai
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The reason for the A330 being pushed back was not that he overshot the stand at all. The parking configuration for the royal suite apron has 6 different centrlines. When the REd carpet is in use the aircraft needs to park facing north west so that his
wheels dont make the carpet mucky ( heaven forbid).
The unfortunate thing about using this particular centreline is that the stand behind the apron which is whiskey 6 requires to be empty beacuse the approach to the stand cuts the corner of whiskey 6, there are also blast safety issues.
On the day in question there was a very high profile foreign air force aircraft on this stand which means the aircraft had to shut down in block 111 and be pushed back.
Easy as that.
wheels dont make the carpet mucky ( heaven forbid).
The unfortunate thing about using this particular centreline is that the stand behind the apron which is whiskey 6 requires to be empty beacuse the approach to the stand cuts the corner of whiskey 6, there are also blast safety issues.
On the day in question there was a very high profile foreign air force aircraft on this stand which means the aircraft had to shut down in block 111 and be pushed back.
Easy as that.
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Berkshire, UK
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So there's still fun with the "Royal" stands, eh? Long ago I was GMC controller when a dignitary was departing in an RAF VC-10. The a/c was facing south on the Royal stand and the instruction was that it was to taxi ahead to Bl.83, cross 27L then proceed east to 27L for take-off. Under no circumstances was it to turn right along the southern taxiway due to the possibility of blast damage. Unfortunately either me or the crew screwed up; with the engines winding up the VC10 turned hard right along the southern taxiway.. During the following investigation I was told that a certain VIP had gone bananas... but admitted privately that the sight of the Lord Chancellor, all doled up in gaiters, etc., being blown horizontally across the tarmac was the funniest thing he'd ever seen!
