Last week we had some unseasonably rainy weather in southern California. While it wasn't enough to make a dent in the on-going drought, it was sufficient to snarl air traffic for a few days. A number of our controllers wanted you to see these shots. While they don't tell the whole story, you can certainly get the idea.
The rain was lovely, the humidity, eh. I was listening to the south tower and a DL 757 declined to take off because there was lightning right off the end of 25R. The controller deferred to the pilot. He asked if he could make an immediate left right after take off and was given permission (sorry El Segundo). I was watching the live cam of the 25's and saw a huge bolt hit the ocean. I wouldn't want to fly through that either.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to see that AF got their planes cleaned by the rain.
The conga lines up B were fun to watch too.
Yes, the humidity was an unwelcome reminder of pretty much everywhere else I've ever lived. Ugh.
DeleteThe pilot in command always has the final say as to the operation of his aircraft. When weather or separation are a factor, noise abatement rules go by the wayside: Safety trumps convenience. Lightning is never a good sign when you're in an airplane. There was at least one airplane struck by lightning on its way into LAX during the day of the worst weather. Lightning also slows things down on the ground, because ramp crews will not work when there's lightning near or on the airport, and there were several lightning strikes either on the field or very close by. Planes don't get parked or pushed, bags don't get loaded, fueling and other servicing doesn't happen. The accepted practice is that they wait fifteen (15) minutes after the last lightning strike before resuming ramp operations. I don't blame them; when I was working in New Orleans, a Southwest ramper was struck by lightning in relatively good weather, despite being surrounded by lots of large metallic objects. That instance was a bit unusual; there had not been any previous lightning. He survived, but his story and others like his have caused work rules to be more protective when there is weather in the area.
The conga lines may have been entertaining to watch, but they were murder for the ground controllers. One of the things I would have liked to show you was the list of departure in-trail restrictions that we were working under during that time period: Ten to fifteen miles in trail for most departure procedures, while certain fixes were four and five minutes between departures, or even shut off entirely. It was brutal; nobody wanted to work ground control that day!
May I ask what the RJ ( it looks like United colors ) was doing on E7 ?
ReplyDelete--Filip
There are a few possible reasons for an aircraft to end up where that SkyWest CRJ is seen in the first photo, but they all come down to the same basic thing: For some reason, the aircraft would or could not be cleared for take off when it got to the head of the line. In this particular instance, I think it was because departures on a particular route were being held on the ground due to weather blocking that route. I know that happened several times during the course of this weather system. Other possible reasons might be that the tower controller needed to resequence the aircraft because of flow restrictions, or because the aircraft was not ready for departure. This probably happens at least once an hour at LAX.
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