Armed robbery in Coolock causes three Dublin flights to be diverted to Shannon

periodictable

OK-I've checked the date and no it's NOT April 1st.
MSN is carrying a report on how 3 flights were diverted to Shannon because the Garda helicopter had to be given airspace priority because it was hunting an armed robber.


http://www.news.msn.ie/armed-coolock-robbery-causes-three-dublin-flights-to-be-diverted-to-shannon-832343-Mar2013/

I think of airports worldwide, in mega cities, where police helicopters can operate near airports and not disrupt flights. Similar situations arise on roads where because of an accident the road remains closed for hours while the scene is "investigated" of "cleared".
Is it further proof that the Irish are basically incompetent or unable to think outside the box?

Peppa Pig

Same thing happened at Heathrow last week, so it's unlikely to be incompetence.
Sound to me like the Gardai thought right outside the box and foiled a cash in transit heist.

Edit - better detail here Irish Times

All flights landed at Dublin and the reason for diversion was the fact that the helicopter had to fly directly into the line of approach of the planes, which is unusual.

andy_g

Actually only 3 flights diverted to Shannon due to running into their hold fuel, all departures continued out of EIDW (Dublin) as scheduled.

Custardpi

Would there have been any costs incurred by the airlines/airport/passengers due to these diversions & if so how would they compare to the value of the cash stolen?

andy_g

Custardpi wrote: »

Would there have been any costs incurred by the airlines/airport/passengers due to these diversions & if so how would they compare to the value of the cash stolen?

As a pilot myself for an airline that was on the diversion today (not me) the cost's are the fuel involved for the diversion leg, compensation to the pax if the delay is over 4hrs and possibility of the return flight to dublin in fuel costs

Cookie_Monster

andy_g wrote: »

As a pilot myself for an airline that was on the diversion today (not me) the cost's are the fuel involved for the diversion leg, compensation to the pax if the delay is over 4hrs and possibility of the return flight to dublin in fuel costs

and additional pay and transport for pilots, additional maintenance and other overheads (as these will be worked out on a flight hours basis), and some minor insurance and legal costs probably too.

Irish Steve

periodictable wrote: »

I think of airports worldwide, in mega cities, where police helicopters can operate near airports and not disrupt flights. Similar situations arise on roads where because of an accident the road remains closed for hours while the scene is "investigated" of "cleared".
Is it further proof that the Irish are basically incompetent or unable to think outside the box?

No, on the aviation side, it's further proof that an additional runway at Dublin would minimise disruption in an event like this. I will ignore the road side, that's a red herring in this discussion.

The vast majority of larger airports around the world have multiple parallel runways, so if police helicopter activity infringes into the sterile approach zone, they can move active operations to another runway, and continue to operate, albeit with some restrictions.

If you only have one runway into wind, that's difficult, and there's no easy way to move a helicopter out of the way if it's actively involved in resolving a crime situation.

The other solution would be to build a new fit for purpose airport somewhere out near Athlone, with ultra fast rail connections to Dublin, Belfast, Galway, Cork & Limerick, close Shannon Cork & Dublin airports, and name the new airport Ireland International.

The other consideration then would be that no houses or other developments would be allowed within 10 miles of the new airport. No NIMBY's, no noise issues, no issues about stop overs, etc. How refreshing that would be.

Extreme maybe, but it won't happen, despite the advantage of once and for all doing away with the gombeen parish pump attitude towards aviation in this country.

paddydriver

periodictable wrote: »

I think of airports worldwide, in mega cities, where police helicopters can operate near airports and not disrupt flights. Similar situations arise on roads where because of an accident the road remains closed for hours while the scene is "investigated" of "cleared".
Is it further proof that the Irish are basically incompetent or unable to think outside the box?

Sure why don't we let all the robbers run free cause it costs about €100k a head to keep them in jail, and when there is a serious motor accident just shove the cars to one side.. and let the victims get themselves to hospital. All that will save the country a fortune. Sure everything will be grand and we can get back to our incompetent existence:rolleyes:

Victor

Irish Steve wrote: »

Extreme maybe, but it won't happen, despite the advantage of once and for all doing away with the gombeen parish pump attitude towards aviation in this country.

Are you saying Galway shouldn't have 7 airports? :pac:

Galway, Inverin, 3 x Aran Islands, Clifden (not operational) and Inishbofin (not operational).

Irish Steve

Victor wrote: »

Are you saying Galway shouldn't have 7 airports? :pac:

Galway, Inverin, 3 x Aran Islands, Clifden (not operational) and Inishbofin (not operational).

I would venture that Galway might have had a more stable future if Inverin hadn't been set up, and the others are not an issue in the scale of things, what's totally depressing is the absolutely insane scenario that becomes de facto whenever anything to do with international flights is mentioned, with the likely result that a parish pump fudge will be cobbled together to ensure a majority, regardless of how good or bad the outcome is.

Things like the Shannon stop over come to mind, the damage that has done over the years was significant in terms of delaying or preventing routes to and from Ireland being established, and the artificial limit on the runway at Dublin being another.

I would love to see a lot more "local" services operating around local airports, the Aran group shows what can be done, and a similar sort of service to the more remote parts of Galway, Mayo, Donegal and Sligo could work, there are places in Alaska that have that sort of service, using very small aircraft, but the overall cost of providing such a service in Alaska is considerably lower, as the regulatory burden and oversight is much more benign than it is in Europe.

I think that's the underlying issue, somehow, we've ended up with a system and a bureaucracy that is overloaded with top end people who have little to do other than find ways to justify their ongoing existence, so we get crazy rules about the shape and colour of cucumbers, or the insanity that allows a certain size fishing net, but then prevents the trawler from landing fish that were caught but are under a certain size, even though they've died. If the fish are too small, change the net size. it is really that hard?

Plenty more like that, petty bureaucrats with nothing better to do than impose piddling but expensive regulations on top of an existing mountain of stupidity.

I'm not sure how we change it now, it's so embedded and entrenched, but if we are to survive as a civilisation, change it we must while we still can, before we regulate ourselves to death.

Victor

Irish Steve wrote: »

I would love to see a lot more "local" services operating around local airports, the Aran group shows what can be done, and a similar sort of service to the more remote parts of Galway, Mayo, Donegal and Sligo could work, there are places in Alaska that have that sort of service, using very small aircraft, but the overall cost of providing such a service in Alaska is considerably lower, as the regulatory burden and oversight is much more benign than it is in Europe.

Population, Alaska 722,718
Area, Alaska 1,717,854 km²

Population, Connacht 542,547
Area, Connacht 17,788 km²

the insanity that allows a certain size fishing net, but then prevents the trawler from landing fish that were caught but are under a certain size, even though they've died. If the fish are too small, change the net size. it is really that hard?

This is being changed, with such catches coming out of the next year's quota. Catching mackerel of a certain size may be legal, but catching the same size cod might not. You can't guarantee your catch will be one specied only.

Jamie2k9

Would there have been any costs incurred by the airlines/airport/passengers due to these diversions & if so how would they compare to the value of the cash stolen?

Yes airlines will have to pay for the use of facilities in SNN. It would not compare to the value of stolen cash by a long shot.