Friday's (24/5) London airport disruption

[jopsuk]

Friday was rather interesting for anyone flying into or out of London airports- first Heathrow being disrupted thanks to a BA maintenance worker not doing the clips up correctly (has anyone found the bits of cowling yet? Should be in fields near Uxbridge), then Stansted was shut down whilst the Pakistan International Airlines flight to Manchester was escorted to landed there to deal with the two idiots that were foiled by the locked door all airliners now have.

What I didn't understand was why the second of these incidents also appeared to shut Luton for a couple of hours- nothing took off or landed, with several cancellations. Anyone anble to shed light on this?

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

My friend reported having to 'hike' to London Luton to get her flight to France, it was originally scheduled to leave Manchester yesterday but it leaves today from Luton now. I don't know if it's gone.
I do wonder what the cause is though...

 

[Pumbaa]

Nothing was airborne over London for a few hours. Standard procedure apparently when something is diverted to Stansted with priority.

 

[jopsuk]

Were Gatwick, City and Southend shut too? I have to say I forgot to check...

 

[CallySleeper]

I heard something about a bird strike at Heathrow?

 

[Pumbaa]

Gatwick was affected, don't know if it was fully closed.

 

[edwin_m]

I heard something about a bird strike at Heathrow?

What were the birds striking for? What did Bob Crow have to say about it?

 

[Welshman]

What were the birds striking for? What did Bob Crow have to say about it?

Pension provision.
Something about wanting bigger nest-eggs.
Apparently Bob Crow tweeted about it.

 

[starrymarkb]

I heard something about a bird strike at Heathrow?

I'd say more someone in BA maintenance not managing to lock the engine inspection covers properly (The covers on the IAE powered A32x are notoriously difficult to latch properly, there have been a few cases of them opening in flight before)