7,000 Flights delayed....

PopsnTuff

PopsnTuff

Well-known Member
Location
Virginia USA
Christmas travel: 7,000+ flights delayed as holiday rush begins

Delays slowed travelers at a number of airports Thursday as the busy Christmas air-travel period kicked into high gear.

Nationwide, only 231 flights had been canceled as of 10:10 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. But the tally of delays had spiked by Thursday evening from a mix of storms, wind and poor visibility that affected airports on both coasts.

But more than 7,020 flights were late at U.S. airports, creating headaches for air travelers Thursday -- one of the three busiest days of the Christmas/New Year's travel period. Friday (Dec. 21) is expected to be the busiest between now and Jan., according to both the Transportation Security Administration and the Airlines for America trade group....
read more....

www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/to...r-travel/2373452002/

(hope no one here is experiencing this)
 

Weather is generally the number one reason for flight delays anytime of the year. Also, passengers making connections on planes that are late arriving and the plane that they are connecting with then has to wait until they land and can board their connecting flight. Then, if another plane in the sky wants to land, but his gate is still occupied by the waiting plane, the plane is either given clearance to land, but has to park and wait on a taxiway or tarmac, or stay in the sky until the gate is open for the plane to land, or if low on fuel, the plane may have to divert to another airport close by.

Diverting to other airports really screws up the system and makes things very complicated for the passengers. I only diverted a few times and that was during the summer when we were to land during some pretty violent storms. We would resume the flight back to our original destination, once the weather cleared at that airport.
 
A retired pilot friend of mine that lives in upstate New York called me last night and of course, we traded some work stories at Christmas time. After I told my friend the following story, I thought about this thread and thought that I would share it.

We were supposed to fly from Chicago to Miami and then layover for 3 hours before returning back to Chicago. All of this was on December 23. It was snowing pretty hard when we departed Chicago and because of that, my First Officer (F/O) and I were discussing the return trip and if we would even be able to get back because of the snow, which I remember the weatherman was calling for heavy snow and very windy conditions.

Sure enough, I got a call from my Dispatcher while I was in Miami telling me that as of now, O’Hare was open, but conditions were not favorable for any lessening conditions until after our arrival time. All the way to Chicago, we kept receiving weather reports, which were not good. Finally, we were 80 miles from Chicago and ready to begin our decent. I thought to myself, “We are either just going to make it or just miss it.”

We we were given permission to begin our decent down to 15,000 ft. We no sooner leveled off at 15,000 ft. when we received word that O’Hare would need to close for one hour to clear the taxi and runways. We knew that we had enough fuel to stay in the air, but “what if” O’Hare had to extend that time, which you always have to count on. I knew that we had a lot of options that we could divert to, but really didn’t want to do that.

My F/O made the suggestion, “Just for kicks, let’s ask the passengers what they want to do.” I agreed to do that, but I had already made the decision to stick it out and take a wait and see approach. I think the passengers were surprised (shocked) that we asked them what their choice would be. The majority wanted to return to Miami, but we told them that unfortunately, we had to stick it out and wait. They were rewarded for their patience and understanding with a free drink compliments of United. It’s good to be the Captain. People do appreciate the little things sometime.

One hour and twenty minutes later, we landed with no issues. Chicago has always done a great job cleaning the runways.
 
The drone incident at Gatwick has left a lot of questions unanswered, mainly "was there actually a drone in the area at all?". Of the various reported sightings, there are no credible pictures or videos. Are these objects not picked up on radar? A lot of people are very angry about the affair having had their holidays disrupted and feel that things were handled very badly.

Allegedly, a damaged drone was recovered from near the airport, but this has not been mentioned subsequently.
 
For controllers to be able to see drones on their radar screens, the radar must either be very sophisticated or hi-tech enough that it has been equipped to pick up drones.

I never had any any incidents involving a drone, but did have an unreported incident with an ultralight aircraft. The ultralight was flying illegally near the airport and was not permitted to be flying at the altitude that it was.

Upon the ultralight landing, the pilot was arrested and charged accordingly, along with his u/l being confiscated. I have no idea of the outcome.
 
Oldman, I can perfectly understand that a small drone could be hard to detect. Many people in the UK own small drones which are little more than kid's toys. The larger 'professional' ones are mainly used properly by film companies, news organisations or for surveillance , surveying etc..

Facts are very scarce, and speculation is rife. The UFO brigade think that it was extra-terrestrial activity. Others think it was environmental activists - or a disgruntled employee, or a disgruntled passenger, or state sponsored terrorism, or some kids doing it for a prank etc.. the list goes on. And of course, there is a possibility that many or most of the sightings were mis-identification, hallucination or just pure imagination.

Police arrested two totally innocent drone enthusiasts and now face the possibility of being sued. The truth of the matter may never be known.
 
From some of the stories that I have been told and read, drones present a real danger to aircraft, especially if they are flown near airports where planes are descending or taking off into airspace that drones could reach.

Imagine an engine or engines ingesting birds, then think what if they were drones instead. As a pilot, I would suggest that flyers of drones act responsibly and to keep safety in mind.
 

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