EI638 Diverts to AMS

eusap

Last night the Are Lingus service to Brussels diverted to Amsterdam to re-fuel due to a lightening storm over Brussels, watching the plane on flight radar it seemed to decide early on to divert to AMS without any holding. The Ryanair flight which takes off from Dublin at the same time seemed to go into a holding pattern for about 30mins and then landed safely.

Would the AL pilot know before leaving Dub that a storm was expected and to take on more fuel?

Cessna_Pilot

Yes.

goingnowhere

You arrive BRU and hold, no indication of how long it will be.

Others start to divert, still holding, your alternate is now full, where do you go?

eusap

goingnowhere wrote: »

You arrive BRU and hold, no indication of how long it will be.

Others start to divert, still holding, your alternate is now full, where do you go?

The point is there was no holding, it headed towards brussels seen bad weather and diverted to AMS with out any holding, see the flight path here http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/ei-cvb/#71bf426

pepe the prawn

Were there many other aircraft in the area holding?

It's the call of the captain, perhaps they would have been in the queue for an approach at Brussels. Also, at that point in time when the crew made the decision to divert, weather may have been forecast to remain unchanged or not improve enough to warrant a safe approach and landing, so the crew opted to divert rather than spending 30 mins holding and then diverting anyway.

Lots of times with weather it can be the luck of the draw, I've seen times at ORK when ryanairs and shamrocks have gone around and entered the hold, ryanairs have then headed for Shannon and by the time they are setting up their descent and approach the shamrock has approached and landed in ORK. Also happens vice versa with the shamrocks and ryanairs.

Also happens in windy weather, one aircraft may have two missed approaches, whilst the next one will land just because the wind died down for 30 seconds during the final phase of the approach and landing.

eusap

That makes more sense, a lot of aircraft were holding to the south around charleroi airport