Manchester Airport

[AndrewSchofield]

Does anyone on here live close to Manchester Airport and happened to be, by chance, at the Airport last night (Mon 1st June). We live about 15 miles south of the Airport and right on the flight path so we're used to planes flying overhead quite low, but last night we had passenger planes circling above us. There was at one point five planes circling but for most of the time just four and the same four planes were circling for close to two hours. I, nor the people i was with have ever seen this happen above us before in the last 30 years?

Anyone seen this before around Manchester Aiport and/or have any idea why they were doing it?

 

[Shytalkz]

ATC were watching Ashes to Ashes

 

[AndrewSchofield]

Good for them because i missed the first ten mins stood outside wondering what the aeroplanes were doing!! And then when i went to watch it we were receiving no signal on the Sky box so ended up missing the first 35mins!!

Dont know if the intensified aircraft activity was interferring with the TV signals?

 

[Shytalkz]

Ooooh, there's a conspiracy theory there, just waiting to leap out

It's nowhere near as good as Life On Mars anyhow...

 

[mattylad]

Maybe they were put into a holding pattern to give priority to another plane that was having problems?

Or perhaps there was an obstruction on the runways so that they could not land & had to circle a bit.

 

[AndrewSchofield]

Ooooh, there's a conspiracy theory there, just waiting to leap out

It's nowhere near as good as Life On Mars anyhow...

True, true but Series Two has been better than Series One not much i can do about it as they finished life on mars

 

[AndrewSchofield]

Maybe they were put into a holding pattern to give priority to another plane that was having problems?

Or perhaps there was an obstruction on the runways so that they could not land & had to circle a bit.

Thats what i'm guessing but just wondered if anyone was there and saw what was going on! I take the kids to watch the planes taking off/landing at Manchester sometimes and the most excitement i've seen was a couple of aborted landings, nothing to ever cause holding back other planes landing!!

 

[Shytalkz]

Maybe they were put into a holding pattern to give priority to another plane that was having problems?

Or perhaps there was an obstruction on the runways so that they could not land & had to circle a bit.

Stop being boring and giving sensible possibilities

 

[AndrewSchofield]

Maybe they were put into a holding pattern to give priority to another plane that was having problems?

Or perhaps there was an obstruction on the runways so that they could not land & had to circle a bit.

Stop being boring and giving sensible possibilities

We were postulating on the possibility of a secret ploy to bring Syncronised 747 flying into the 2012 Olympics and the GB team getting some sneaky practice in!!

 

[plugwash]

sometimes if a plane has landing gear problems and does not have fuel jettison equipment (many don't) they will circle for ages to burn off fuel before landing.