This week's edition of Photo Friday features several shots taken by my coworkers, who have many times helped out by grabbing photos when I'm not able. The opening shot is one, thanks to CG. The final Delta Airlines domestic B747 flight pushing out for departure, accompanied by a band of baton-waving ramp crew. Delta and United, the two remaining US mainline carriers who operate the B747, both have announced plans to retire the type from their fleets this year. Speaking of retiring, CG will soon be leaving our ranks as well, and we'll miss him.
A comment was posted recently, asking if we have camera coverage of any of the hidden TBIT gates. We do, sometimes. When it works, this is about the best display that we get of the west side of the TBIT. The black square is supposed to be another view from a camera that we can control, but clearly we couldn't on the day this shot was taken. As you can see, the gates have been labelled for easier identification. I think SM gets credit for that. All of them are currently occupied with the exception of 134, at the far left. The gate next to it, 132, is currently closed for underground construction.
While Texas was recently in the news for hurricane Harvey, LA was in the news for the La Tuna fire. We could see the fire from the tower at night, but none of those shots came out clear enough to use. This is the towering cumulus cloud produced over the fire one day. One of our controllers had family threatened by this fire - he showed me phone pics of the fire taken from their back yard. They had to evacuate, but fortunately the fire didn't actually make it to their house. As it so happens, he is also one of the ones who particularly likes to play with the camera. Most of his shots I'm not allowed to publish, but here's one that came out really nice:
I don't recall why I took this next photo, but it was about 7 in the morning:
This one was taken just 5 minutes later:
Both of those are just as they came out of the camera. It's impressive how fast the visibility can change at LAX.
And finally, another couple of shots that I can't take credit for. We see this way too often at LAX:
Sad tributes. I'd have thought by this time in my life that wars would have ceased.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was a blue meanie and worked in the office at T2 on grave yard, looking out the window and it was clear and you could see T1 clear as day, and a 1/2 hour later it was socked in with fog.
We were driving out to my teaching job last Friday afternoon and saw that cloud. Scary. We had ash on our car in lawndale Sunday AM and the smoke in the air made it difficult to breathe.
Thank you for taking the time to post these great photos. I love getting updates of my home airport from this unique perspective.
ReplyDelete