Flightradar24 (and other trackers) Thread Part IV

tricky D wrote: »

Very busy with a big mix of .mil types over the North Sea off Norfolk with SAR for a lost US fighter.

F-15 crashed and pilot was killed unfortunately.

https://news.sky.com/story/us-f-15-fighter-jet-crashes-into-north-sea-off-yorkshire-coast-as-major-operation-underway-12007159

https://www.flightradar24.com/STK42D/24b7e4f6

Any idea why it's been holding for the last 40ish minutes? With one aborted landing it looks like.

Blocked aircraft coming in to SNN now from Tel Aviv - El Al?

Thanks TABNABS, that’s a pretty cool way to view a G4

Few others in Shannon later

TC-ACM B744 @1525
N351AX B763 @ 1640
N8518U AT5T @1825
N342AX B763 @1850
OE-IBO B734 @ 2040

NoDrama wrote: »

Long journey for this bird into Shannon
https://www.flightradar24.com/N8518U/24b99a9c

Impressive range for its size, I'd have wagered a multi stop in Greenland and Iceland before routing through Scotland for a plane of its size.

Tabnabs wrote: »

http://www.n451kr.com/

That's a very odd website - not a contact name or number or website to be seen! Although I guess it's one of those things where you have to know someone who knows someone...

dashoonage wrote: »

Google tells me it's an air tractor , an agricultural plane, that cant be right is it ?

They’re used as crop dusters but also small water bombers. There’s been a few through Shannon lately (I haven’t paid attention where they’re going) on temporary registrations, presumably being delivered to new owners somewhere.

Edit: I’m not sure about these smaller types, but I remember hearing that larger water bombers are often shared between two countries in opposite hemispheres, eg Canada & Australia. Climate change is threatening this model though, as the fire seasons are getting longer and starting to overlap north & south.

They have the ability to put additional fuel tanks in the hoppers, so they have massive range.

HTCOne wrote: »

Indeed. Plenty of people have lost their lives doing it over the years. They can't fly above any bad weather like pressurised aircraft can, and too much weaving between cells exhausts their fuel. Any kind of fuel leak, or fire, or engine failure etc and things get pretty grim. I remember a lad was running low on fuel years ago who tried to make it to one of the Aran Islands during the night, all the locals lit up the runway with their cars, he didn't make it sadly. There was another guy in recent years who was dashing for Shannon, telling the controllers to tell his family he loved them etc. Thanfully he made it down, and ran out of fuel on the taxiway. Very lucky.

It's hardly correct to say that plenty of people have been lost. Yes, there have been some, but thousands have made it safely. From the 1960s to the 1980s and perhaps later, Shannon as a ferry flight stop-off saw large numbers of Pipers, Cessnas, Mooneys and such types as the Grumman AA-5, plus machines such as Beech T-34C Turbo-Mentor military trainers, all single-engined, and the success rate was very high. True, there were tragedies, but they were very rare, by my recollection.

EchoIndia wrote: »

It's hardly correct to say that plenty of people have been lost. Yes, there have been some, but thousands have made it safely. From the 1960s to the 1980s and perhaps later, Shannon as a ferry flight stop-off saw large numbers of Pipers, Cessnas, Mooneys and such types as the Grumman AA-5, plus machines such as Beech T-34C Turbo-Mentor military trainers, all single-engined, and the success rate was very high. True, there were tragedies, but they were very rare, by my recollection.

I think it all depends on our differing definitions of "plenty". If you include the Blue Spruce polar route via Wick, Iceland, Greenland etc (which has been in use since the 40s), the one via the Azores, and the lads to who just stuff as many fuel tanks into the aircraft as she'll fit and plow straight across, I can think of plenty of stories of people going down. Thankfully many are rescued. Modern immersion suits and rafts are a lot better nowadays. When I do get some lad pop up on radar at 10k and say hello to the first person he has probably spoken to in hours (some have HF fitted but I believe they're problematic on smaller craft) especially in the winter, I always think they must be a bit nuts.

Anyway, sorry for the thread drift.

MF9....A beauty

She is coming back it appears, at FL400 so can't be that bad