BA A380 Visit to Shannon yesterday [Video]
 

We were delighted to see the BA A380 in Shannon yesterday for a short publicity visit. First time an A380 had been in Ireland since 2006 test flight by Airbus.

It's definitely getting about these last few weeks and it looks good in the BA livery :ok: Did I see a 727 (bronze/white) in the background as it was taking off ?



SHJ

Well spotted there, might be VP-BAP?

That 727 has been there for a while. She is not airworthy. Looks in quite a bad state up close.

I know that it's only metal, but to see these old classics neglected and rotting away brings on a touch of melancholy :(



SHJ

BA A380 Visit to Shannon yesterday [Video]
 

Who handled it in SNN

Not sure. Most likely Servisair I would imagine. It was only on the ground for two hours just to let the press take a look around it.

Out of interest, what press ? Irish, or otherwise ? You'd have thought that they'd have press-ganged the hell out of it in the 1st week of it arriving at LHR before the crew training started. Perhaps the Gigginstown tycoon was having a looksee :suspect:



SHJ

Noted it coming out of Gatwick to Heathrow on FR24 last night, a left hand turn from Kenley round towards Epsom and straight over my place at 8000 - looked very nice indeed in the late evening sunshine.

BA A380 Visit to Shannon yesterday [Video]
 

It's a whistle stop tour of airports that It has a potential of diverting in to, just incase it doesn't fit when it has 300+ pax on it. It spent Monday night in STN, then went to SNN from there.

Don't know what press. I presume the Irish press. I guess they thought they might as well get a bit of publicity out of it while they were in.

As mentioned in a previous post they were coming to Shannon primarily to check it out seeing as it would be the main transatlantic diversion point should the A380 have a problem off the West coast of Ireland.

They also used the visit to get some publicity photos of the A380 nose to nose with the BA A318 which passes through SNN each day en route from London City to JFK.

BA A380 Visit to Shannon yesterday [Video]
 

They did the same with the BA -8 the night before

radar, I saw the 'nose to nose' but we were way to far off to get a decent photo ..... are there any decent shots around ? ......

There are some on flickr. I'll try to find the links.

A380 vs A318
 

Here's a great photo (not taken by me) of the A380 head to head with the A318.

G-EUNA and G-XLEA at Shannon | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Am I the only one getting a "Give me your dinner money" vibe from that photo?

Just (1420 UTC) saw it in the OCK area at about 5000ft, headed south then turned south east going quite slowly, didn't appear to be climbing.

It's operating the LHR-Frankfurt route for the next 8 weeks for crew training. What you saw was flight # BA910.

It is indeed doing the FRA. I'm sitting looking at it right now in Frankfurt. Looks really good in the BA livery

Some days it'll do other stuff. On at least one day (06 Aug), some 300 staff will board and not go anywhere for 9h+, simulating a long-haul flight......what larks !