Aircraft Warning Beacons on Approach to Vienna

[Whisky Papa]

On the 26th Jan, my afternoon Jet2 flight from Manchester to Prague (LS887) was diverted to Vienna to refuel - we were only about 20 minutes out from Prague when the airport was closed due to a sudden snowfall.

I've never flown into Vienna before, but looking at the airport layout and the fact we taxied back past the terminals to reach an apron at the north of the airport, I assume we approached from the SE to land on runway 29. Unlike the murk over Prague, it was a crystal clear (if very cold!) night here, and sat on the port side, I noticed there were several dark patches on the ground that housed a network of red beacons that flashed together at perhaps one second intervals. It was quite a sight, and not one I can recall seeing before in this fashion.

Does anyone with more experience of flying into Vienna have any suggestion as to what they are protecting? Unfortunately I'm not subscribed to any flight tracking site so can't offer any further info as to our course, but I'm assuming they are most likely in in Slovakia.

 

[Belfastmarty]

There looks to be windfarms to the north and east of Parndorf which you would fly over doing an approach to 29. I wonder is that what you saw ?

 

[Whisky Papa]

There looks to be windfarms to the north and east of Parndorf which you would fly over doing an approach to 29. I wonder is that what you saw ?

I admit the spacing of the beacons might certainly mirror that of windfarms. What puzzles me is that they were all in areas that were noticeably much darker than the surrounding areas, which might suggest either dense tree cover or maybe even open water (unlikely looking at the map now). I was wondering if there were some wooded hillsides that needed highlighting to pilots? Again, it's frustrating not to have an idea of the actual approach path.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Again, it's frustrating not to have an idea of the actual approach path.

Play it back on Flight Radar 24, with the approach area zoomed in?

 

[70014IronDuke]

If you are approaching VIE from the SE and sitting on the port side, you are not looking at Slovakia. That is Burgenland and then Lower Austria.

 

[Taunton]

They are windfarm turbines, lots of them. I have passed over them myself into Vienna at night, and then the next day went to and from Bratislava on the Autobahn, day and then night, and passed them and their lights on top of the masts.

Like other aircraft red lights, they are not so much to caution airliners approaching the airport on fixed tracks as for light aircraft and helicopters operating visually in the area and having to keep underneath the airlanes allocated to the airliners.

 

[Belfastmarty]

Here's your track. https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/EXS887/history/20260126/1540Z/EGCC/LOWW. Looks like you landed on 34; I'm 99% sure it's the windfarms you were seeing.

 

[pug1]

I admit the spacing of the beacons might certainly mirror that of windfarms. What puzzles me is that they were all in areas that were noticeably much darker than the surrounding areas, which might suggest either dense tree cover or maybe even open water (unlikely looking at the map now). I was wondering if there were some wooded hillsides that needed highlighting to pilots? Again, it's frustrating not to have an idea of the actual approach

As others have said, wind farms. They’re an impressive sight from the air at night. Athens has a quite large wind farm which does the same. Also off the coast of Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire the lights flash periodically which at night from the air also looks like an otherwise black patch.

 

[Cloud Strife]

I'm pretty sure it's the wind farms, because you see a lot of the lights when driving north from Vienna at night, particularly once you pass through the city and head onto the S1 expressway bypass towards the A5. There's quite a lot of them around Vienna.

Odd decision of Jet2 to go to Vienna to refuel though, Dresden would've been closer. Perhaps they thought that they wouldn't make it back to Prague that day, and preferred to get the plane to a destination where they have ground handling rather than trying to set something up in Dresden?

 

[pug1]

I'm pretty sure it's the wind farms, because you see a lot of the lights when driving north from Vienna at night, particularly once you pass through the city and head onto the S1 expressway bypass towards the A5. There's quite a lot of them around Vienna.

Odd decision of Jet2 to go to Vienna to refuel though, Dresden would've been closer. Perhaps they thought that they wouldn't make it back to Prague that day, and preferred to get the plane to a destination where they have ground handling rather than trying to set something up in Dresden?

Exactly this, because they don’t fly to Dresden they go to VIE due to the active SGHA and commercially agreed rates. So when people say DSA should reopen to act as a diversion to LBA they’re p****ng in the wind.

 

[Whisky Papa]

Many thanks for all who have replied, particularly @Belfastmarty for the flight track. I am registered with FlightRadar but don't pay a subscription so can't retrieve flights from more than 7 days ago - I had intended to look it up last weekend but other things distracted me.

As I'd mistakenly thought we'd landed on runway 29, I had assumed we were further east than we actually were. Given the short distance to the border, I would have still been able to see Slovakia in the distance as we flew SE before we made the 180 turn to line up with runway 34; however that was clearly not the location of the beacons which were quite close to our path. I suspect I might also have been able to briefly see Hungary in the distance as we made the 180 degree turn?

Yes, I'd thought Vienna had been chosen as it was a Jet2 destination - I hadn't thought of Dresden but possibly Nuremburg might have been closer. Unbelievably, we actually had a passenger who - while not quite 'kicking off' - was clearly unhappy about the delay, and was asking the stewardess if he could disembark at Vienna. She thought that he could do so if he really wished, but a combination of us being parked on a remote apron on a freezing night and being told that he would lose any rights to compensation if he did disembark seemed to change his mind!

Anyway, mystery solved, thanks to you all.

 

[70014IronDuke]

As I'd mistakenly thought we'd landed on runway 29, I had assumed we were further east than we actually were. Given the short distance to the border, I would have still been able to see Slovakia in the distance as we flew SE before we made the 180 turn to line up with runway 34;

Yes. You would almost certainly have seen the lights of Bratislava, assuming no cloud cover.

however that was clearly not the location of the beacons which were quite close to our path.

Actually (from memory) there is a substantial wind farm on the Austrian side of the border very close to Bratislava - probably within 4 km of the city centre, and these might have been lit by beacons too.

Fun fact: Back in the days of the Iron Curtain, one could step off a country road in that area into wha was then Czechoslovak territory (today Slovakia) because the actual fences and guard towers were some distance in the hinterland. The only indication for the unwary was a notice every 100m or so warning that this was the Staats Grenze.

There were other places on Austria's northern border where this was possible too. Of course, it wasn't a fun fact when kids actually did it and a communist border patrol happened to be in the field they'd wandered into. From memory, when the CZ authorities wanted to be difficult, they detained border violaters for days, and maybe fined them too.

I suspect I might also have been able to briefly see Hungary in the distance as we made the 180 degree turn?

Yes. The u-turn looks to be very close to Neusiedlersee (lake), which is largely in Austria at that turning point, with the HU border abbutting it just to the east.

 

[The exile]

Fun fact: Back in the days of the Iron Curtain, one could step off a country road in that area into wha was then Czechoslovak territory (today Slovakia) because the actual fences and guard towers were some distance in the hinterland. The only indication for the unwary was a notice every 100m or so warning that this was the Staats Grenze.

There were other places on Austria's northern border where this was possible too. Of course, it wasn't a fun fact when kids actually did it and a communist border patrol happened to be in the field they'd wandered into. From memory, when the CZ authorities wanted to be difficult, they detained border violaters for days, and maybe fined them too.

Similar situations applied along the inner German frontier as well (including the Berlin Wall which was a metre or so inside DDR territory.)

 

[route101]

You see the red lights on the wind turbines to the South of Glasgow. They don't flash though.

 

[The exile]

You see the red lights on the wind turbines to the South of Glasgow. They don't flash though.

They would if you were viewing them “through” the diameter of other turbines, though I suppose if you’re viewing them from above that doesn’t apply.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Fun fact: Back in the days of the Iron Curtain, one could step off a country road in that area into wha was then Czechoslovak territory (today Slovakia) because the actual fences and guard towers were some distance in the hinterland. The only indication for the unwary was a notice every 100m or so warning that this was the Staats Grenze.

There were other places on Austria's northern border where this was possible too. Of course, it wasn't a fun fact when kids actually did it and a communist border patrol happened to be in the field they'd wandered into. From memory, when the CZ authorities wanted to be difficult, they detained border violaters for days, and maybe fined them too.

Yes, generally speaking, they tried to avoid putting fences and other barricades next to the border line. It was partially about image and partially about being pragmatic: if you had the fence next to the border, it would be very difficult to secure it while it was being maintained. They also simply didn't want the West to see ugly fences/barricades, and it was often the case that the only barrier was on the Western side. Having said that, there were quite a few fences around Bratislava that were placed very close to the border.

Generally speaking, the approach of the authorities depended on the circumstances. If it was an innocent breach of the border by a couple of metres, they generally ignored the border crosser unless they were obviously doing something that was a no-no, like taking photographs. Of course, if you were meddling with border fortifications, it would be a different story, but they generally didn't bother people who just stepped into their territory.