Fascinating Aviation News
Anna is back from holiday and boy does it show. I’m hard-pressed to compete with the excellent articles that she’s highlighted on the Fear of Landing Facebook page this past week.
I know not all of you use Facebook so I thought I’d share the best posts with you.
My favourite was the news piece about the RAF jet who diverted a Lithuanian cargo plane after it stopped responding to ATC.
RAF Typhoon to cargo plane: “I’m instructed by Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom to warn you if you do not respond immediately to my orders, you will be shot down.”
To react quickly to the incident, the Typhoons were launched from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and travelled at supersonic speed.
The resulting blast was heard in the Dartford area at around 4.40pm, and resonated in the north-west Kent areas of Sevenoaks, Kemsing, Dartford, Faversham, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells.
Frightened local residents quickly took to Twitter to speculate whether Kent had been hit by an earthquake or an explosion.
The audio has been posted to Soundcloud by RAF Coningsby Info:
To hear the warning from the RAF "….if you do not respond to my orders immediately you will be shot down" visit http://t.co/aAKjoECAbq
— RAF Coningsby Info (@EGXCinfo) October 29, 2014
Here’s a few more of Anna’s posts:
And today’s post, especially for Halloween:
If you enjoy Anna’s posts, come on over to Facebook and join us on the page or simply leave a comment here to ask her to post more.
Great stuff! Keep it coming !
I just pick two items to react:
1. B737 nosewheel touched down first on landing. Nosewheel collapsed. Did I read correctly that the crew had landed with a tailwind component of up to 30 mph or approx. 25 kts ? NO commercial airliner is certified to land with more than 10 kts tailwind component. There are no performance calculations beyond that so a crew trying this is very lucky if it ends up with nothing more than a damaged aircraft, hurt pride and some explaining to do !
2. Ice on aircraft.
All flying surfaces must be clear of ice before take-off. Ice on the fuselage is permitted, guide: the livery must be recognisable through the layer of frost. Ice that has formed on the underside of the wings as a result of undercooled fuel during a preceding flight (and subsequent parking in damp air) is also allowed. That is one I never really understood and I always preferred to have that area de-contaminated as well. As we say in Ireland “to be sure to be sure” !