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t1_j9s4yv5 wrote

Airports close?

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t1_j9v7nh9 wrote

LaGuardia in NY shuts down at midnight. Had a flight out of there that was delayed from 9pm to 11:50. Fastest boarding I've ever seen, we took off at 11:59pm after several minutes of suspense while we taxied to the runway. Now I avoid that airport

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t1_j9sxuh4 wrote

Probably most airports in the world close yeah

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t1_j9syixy wrote

Usually they coordinate to avoid closing while a plane is on the way ffs

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t1_j9tdmsz wrote

No they don't. They close on the minute to avoid heavy fines from authorities. If a pilot calculate they wouldn't reach the destination airport until 1 minute after they close he won't take of. Obviously they would still let a plane land in an emergency or if they didn't have fuel to reach another airport.

Myself and 50 or so passenger once had to pretty much run from a plane that had issues with the door mechanism to the replacement plane because they had 20 minutes to closing time (22:00) and we would be stranded to next morning if we didn't make it.

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t1_j9tfpy7 wrote

They don’t coordinate?

I didn’t say that ATC breaks the law for people’s convenience. The article says that this airport does stay open for unforeseen circumstances. It sounds like the pilot took the slack for granted.

Either the folks in this story didn’t communicate well, or they agreed to risk it at the last minute.

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t1_j9t16v2 wrote

Just land anyway, what are they gonna do, stop you lol

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t1_j9t7x9b wrote

That is an option, but you'd be doing it without any assistance & the FAA or local admin fine plus potential prison time would likely outweigh a diversion.

Which is another thing, why no diversion, is this airline so broke they can't land at an alternate & stump up for transport.

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t1_j9t8hh8 wrote

Yeh, was just making a silly joke

Obviously i dont seriously expect a plane to just land at any airport anytime it likes, would be incredibly dangerous lol

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t1_j9thfe5 wrote

I was under the impression that aircraft have an almost exact amount of fuel, how would it have had enough for a return journey?

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t1_j9todkj wrote

Airlines plan for at least 45 min of reserve fuel on top of the fuel it takes to start engines and taxi to runway at origin airport, fly to destination, and hold for 30 min above destination airport.

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t1_j9tq5jf wrote

They are required by law to hold some in reserve for emergencies and redirections.

I think an investigation was launched when a drone caused a significant number of flights to redirect from Gatwick London, to Heathrow London and some aircraft skipped the holding queue due to running low on reserves.

Because a significant number had to divert they had to divert and wait in a holding pattern.

I don't think anyone broke the rules but I think some changes were made as those who ran the lowest fuel (to save weight and cost) also ended up with priority landing.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/20/london-gatwick-airport-grounds-flights-due-to-drone-intrusion.html

I don't think anyone broke the rules but changes were made at the airport to redirect further away sooner rather than using waiting patterns.

This article's video isn't loading for me which is a shame.

TLDR; they have to have some spare in case of stuff.

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t1_j9uekx5 wrote

Surprised they had the fuel for that michegoss.

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t1_j9ujhj9 wrote

They didn't. They had to land and refuel at a larger airport, Osaka, before returning to Tokyo.

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t1_j9tc5yw wrote

How is this oniony? That's just normal

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