Plane v train at Birmingham Int

[crewmeal]

What happened here I wonder to cause trains being halted outside Birmingham International? I do hate that excuse 'operational' reasons.

http://www.itv.com/news/central/upd...due-to-incoming-plane-with-operational-issue/

Airport incident due to incoming plane with 'operational issue'

A Birmingham Airport spokesperson has confirmed the incident this evening was due to an incoming plane reporting an 'operational issue' while landing.


The FlyBe BE854 flight landed safely at 8:25pm, and all passengers got off as normal, five minutes later than the scheduled arrival time.


As a precaution Air Traffic Control stopped trains running through Birmingham International station, which is next to the airport and runway. There are still some slight delays to rail services.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Any sort of incident where they may have expected the plane to land short of the runway.

 

[dzug2]

Trains would have been halted until the plane had safely passed over the rail lines just in case it 'landed' short on the tracks.

 

[crewmeal]

I guess you could say that about every landing then.

 

[MK Tom]

Personally I don't 'expect' every plane to land short of the runway! This is pretty rare and must've been a fairly serious issue on the aircraft.

 

[dosxuk]

A short landing on to the tracks would have been three quarters of a mile short, in the middle of an industrial estate.

 

[455driver]

I do hate that excuse 'operational' reasons.

So do I, if you know what the problem is then tell people (within reason), 'operational reasons' smack of corporate cowmanure!

 

[CC 72100]

So do I, if you know what the problem is then tell people (within reason), 'operational reasons' smack of corporate cowmanure!

Or companies the simply lie.

Yesterday, trains were evacuated and the line shut down on lines 2,6, 10 and 11 of the Parisian metro.

The initial excuse was given was a 'problem with the power supply' until an hour later they finally admitted that it was in fact due to the discovery of asbestos in the control room for the lines. In the end the lines were down for about 4 hours, but I think people were really hacked off about the RATP completely lying about the reason.

 

[Butts]

Hmm...BE854 that comes down from Edinburgh, would be handy for Butts if the flight was late and I was rushing for a train

 

[The Planner]

Apparently it was in the middle of a nasty storm and the plane got into difficulties on approach. If that happens then the juice is turned off and trains stopped.

 

[ThirdBrad]

Not too sure about the plane landing short thing. I work at UTC Aerospace Systems, Marston Green - which is situated on the northern end of the runway. According to our EH&S advisor, any time a plane has informed the ATC that there may be complications with landing, our site is always evacuated. I know it happened on the night, but we normally have a few people working that late, i haven't heard anything from anyone yet saying we were evacuated.

 

[Antman]

So do I, if you know what the problem is then tell people (within reason), 'operational reasons' smack of corporate cowmanure!

In fairness it's often easier than going into a long winded explanation that most people wouldn't be interested in anyway.

 

[pablo]

Anything from severe cross-wind, wind shear or an engine failure.
Presumably the crew declared an emergency which has the effect of clearing the decks.

 

[driver_m]

According to one of the drivers, that aircraft was extremely low when landing. The weather was awful at the time.

 

[Bald Rick]

According to one of the drivers, that aircraft was extremely low when landing. The weather was awful at the time.

one rather hopes that when it landed it was low enough to touch the tarmac!

 

[dvboy]

The plane apparently was on its third attempted landing, not sure where I read that

 

[starrymarkb]

In that case then it might be a fuel issue leading to the emergency being declared. Aircraft do carry enough for 40 minutes holding. The aircraft will declare an emergency if they eat into these reserves.

 

[Royston Vasey]

What system is in place to have trains stopped and current switched off in such an emergency? I'm imagining a big red phone to Network Rail in ATC and a big red emergency stop button in the signal centre?

I imagine there is a very short amount of time to react to an aircraft getting into difficulties on approach. An extreme example would be BA38 which got lost power on short final into Heathrow and only a few seconds elapsed between declaring an emergency and landing short of the runway.

 

[snowball]

Surprisingly there's nothing on PPRUNE, so it would appear it wasn't a noteworthy incident from an aviation point of view.

 

[starrymarkb]

What system is in place to have trains stopped and current switched off in such an emergency? I'm imagining a big red phone to Network Rail in ATC and a big red emergency stop button in the signal centre?

I imagine there is a very short amount of time to react to an aircraft getting into difficulties on approach. An extreme example would be BA38 which got lost power on short final into Heathrow and only a few seconds elapsed between declaring an emergency and landing short of the runway.

The ATC manual will have a list of numbers to call (Airport Fire Station, Ops, Management, NR, Local Fire service) for an emergency - Generally barring any catastrophic failures on approach ATC will have plenty of time to do so.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

There will likely be a direct dial into Network Rail route control centres. ATC also have direct links to the control rooms of the fire, police and ambulance services. All emergency service control rooms also have dedicated numbers for NR controls.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Thanks.