Re: Rockets fired at aircraft
 

Yes it does. It is a direct dial link between the LHR police control room and them. They know it's us, and visa verca.

Also, we can get ground, approach, and Departs all on our set, and receive and transmit on all channels.

FE

Re: Rockets fired at aircraft
 

Thanks FE, that's good gen, espeically the last paragraph. Have I read it correctly - if we transmit something on the LHR tower frequency, then you guys will hear it on one of your sets, so will know about, and possibly be reacting to, an incident even before ATC phones? That's a very useful piece of info that I didn't know.

Re: Rockets fired at aircraft
 

Only if the radio is turned on. If we go airside (even on the back roads) we have them switched on to whatever channel covers that part of the airfield. North has it's own channel to South. We would then switch all else off apart from our personal radios.


FE

Re: Rockets fired at aircraft
 

...............................

Re: The lady with the emergency
 

Whilst taking a MEDEVAC into EGBB a few years ago I had a firework shot at my a/c. I reported it to ATC, who were disinterested, and said it was common.

I guess times are changing.

Having served in a fair few warzones recently, that rocket got closer to me than anything else!!

Somehow I've found myself on about three or four occassions doing the Canarsie 13L at JFK on the night at July 4th, felt like being at Tet during the 60's.

BTW security people at LHR are the nicest people in our route structure to deal with. Miami the worst.

Re: Rockets fired at aircraft
 

Flying at midnight on this new Years Eve in a police helo, nobody had on a watch that coincided with someone else's timepiece. But we knew the new year was here when the whole sky erupted!! Probably the most spectacular sight I have seen in 30 years of flying.

It is not unusual to have fireworks shot at us (and sometimes worse distractions), it is more the shock of the flash that is a problem, not the actual firework. Always difficult to find the offender as they rarely do it a second time.

Re: Rockets fired at aircraft
 

Try flying into Manila, Philippines on New years eve!!

Puffs of smoke looking not too dissimilar to WWII flak just metres from the wingtip!

Re: Rockets fired at aircraft
 

When I was in Manila in '97, we got the airport closed for 10 mins while we had the Nov 5th firework display at Nomads club.

It wasn't safe to go out on New Years Eve. So many maniacs fired their guns into the air that lots of things got punctured by falling bullets. Most years there are one or two fatalities.

DGG

Re: Rockets fired at aircraft
 

A bad night in Baghdad springs to mind!

Re: Rockets fired at aircraft
 

Looks People newspaper were trawling the site recently - this appeared in last Sunday's edition: Passenger Jet Hit by Firework

Artificial Horizon's post liberally quoted from!

Re: Rockets fired at aircraft
 

i.e. We have no idea who the pilot we have just quoted is!!

In the old days of flying a King Air about 6 years ago coming out of EGBB i had the same problem as P-T gamekeeper, a rocket exploded in front of us. Unfortunatly i was manually flying at the time during climb out, it scared the living **** out of us and disorientated us, took a few seconds to sort it out again. We reported it to ATC and they where not interested saying it happens all the time.

Though there is no real solution to stopping this sort of idiotic behavour maybe the in the meantime the NHS should stop perfoming so many lobotomy's on the general public......

[devil's advocate]

It'd be a bit of a crap airliner that could get taken out by a firework. Think how many fireworks we could buy for the army instead of real weapons if they could cause that much damage.

[/devil's advocate]

Google?
 

Maybe, on a "no-news day", the journos just do a "google" for keywords on the web.

So let's give them some . . .

Aircraft, explosion, airliner, disaster, crash, fire, CFIT (well, SOME of them might know that!) inferno, terrified passengers panic, pilot hero

:E

I will tell you a solution below 250ft...
"Too close for rockets...Switching to guns":E

Door gunners on sentry helicopters.:cool:

What does suprise me is the fact that he was able to do it for several hours (by all acounts), did his neighbours not think that something was amiss?

BBC reports today that perpetrator was sentenced to 2 months imprisonment.

Jail for fireworks
 

Apologies if covered elsewhere, please delete, but a quick search of here and ATC didn't show anything:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4650342.stm

Jail for fireworks air alert man

A landscaper who launched fireworks in the direction of passenger planes landing at Edinburgh Airport has been jailed for two months.
Peter Crane, 20, had directed fireworks from his back garden into the path of air traffic on 29 October, 2004.

The court heard that Crane had no idea of the potential risk
A landscaper who launched fireworks in the direction of passenger planes landing at Edinburgh Airport has been jailed for two months.
Peter Crane, 20, had directed fireworks from his back garden into the path of air traffic on 29 October, 2004.

He pleaded guilty to reckless conduct by placing pilots, air crew and passengers in potential danger.

Sheriff Isabella McColl told Crane the public had witnessed "the horror" of plane crashes on television.

She said: "This situation was considered by the pilots to involve a live possibility of danger.

"I therefore consider a custodial sentence should be imposed as a deterrent to others. My personal view is that this was a very serious matter."

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard how air traffic controllers noticed the rockets exploding from about 1930 GMT on 29 October for several hours until police detained Crane at his home in Riverside, Newbridge.

'Grossly irresponsible'

The exploding rockets could have harmed the landing gear or wiring of the planes, or disturbed the pilots' concentration, the court was told.

Defence agent Alan Jackson said Crane had simply purchased the "cheapest" fireworks from a supermarket and did not know how high they would go.

Crane had lit the fuses in his garden and the fireworks had exploded in intervals, but he had not deliberately targeted the planes, Mr Jackson said.

He added that Crane would now get permission before holding any other firework displays in his garden.

BAA spokesperson Malcolm Robertson said it regarded any behaviour of the kind which places aircraft and communities at danger as "grossly irresponsible".

He added that the flights on the night in question would have been a combination of international and domestic.

Didn't search too hard then?
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...ghlight=rocket

Scotsman Article
 

Article in the Scotsman: http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?...&id=2477272005

This time they say that the fireworks were of the highest category that could be purchased.