The flight paths of BA aeroplanes stuck with nowhere to go made gripping viewing last night. I feel a bit anoraky saying this, but we watched flight paths for three hours (not something I normally do) as various planes were trying to get back into Heathrow and Gatwick. I felt much sympathy for the passengers as their flights were delayed, and even more for the pilots who were set in seemingly endless stacks in the middle of nowhere.
Most impressive was this BA flight from Vancouver
We’d already seen a couple of flights diverted to Shannon, but after circling half a dozen times around the Isle of Man and apparently redirected to Ireland, this flight changed direction and headed back to England after reaching the Irish coast, only to have to circle again over Birmingham. After a long haul flight, I imagine that’s the last thing you want to do! In all, that took about three hours – and what a flight path!!
Close runner up was this flight from Lagos which circled about 10 times around the Channel Islands/Cherbourg, the other was a flight from Orlando to Gatwick, which still made some interesting patterns.
Orlando top, Lagos bottom
History in the making! We could tell when Heathrow & Gatwick were given the all clear – it was like opening the gates at a greyhound race. Everyone left their circling paths and converged on London from all directions. I bet Shannon was relieved!
What total chaos!! But you’ve got to wonder at the logic of sending a plane across the Atlantic, not knowing if it’ll have anywhere to land.
