Flightradar24 Thread Part III

Virgin Atlantic a340 heathrow to jfk currently returning to base after turning around shortly after entering oceanic crossing...wonder what the issue is?

Darwin wrote: »

Virgin Atlantic a340 heathrow to jfk currently returning to base after turning around shortly after entering oceanic crossing...wonder what the issue is?

Apparently one of the flight crew suffered a 'laser-incident' at takeoff from LHR according to Twitter.

Airport Webcams ‏@AirportWebcams 5m5 minutes ago

BREAKING: VIR25B LHR-JFK is ret. to LHR due medical emergency with pilot re "laser incident at take-off". Decl. Pan

Carnacalla wrote: »

Took them a long time to decide to turn back!

As far as I know, these eye injuries are sometimes not immediately apparent after injury such as looking at very bright light like welders etc. Might be similar with a laser incident.

Carnacalla wrote: »

Took them a long time to decide to turn back!

Not really. Imagine the scenario, you're on the flight deck with a couple of hundred pax behind you, laser incident on takeoff but you continue, more than likely assuming/hoping that whatever aggravation your eye is suffering from will pass with a sufficient amount of rubbing/poking/prodding and a bit of time. You certainly don't want to turn around and land back in LHR, visit the company doctor and say "ah well it was a bit itchy but it's grand now". That kind of occurrence would have you summoned to a meeting without tea and biscuits with the bosses. Also, you don't want to turn the aircraft around because you know it's going to put a substantial cost on the company and cause multiple delays/missed connections/fecked up itineraries for pax. Fast forward about 50 minutes and the eye has not improved or worse, deteriorated further. No pilot will be willing to enter the oceanic crossing with an injury such as eye trouble. Especially a laser type injury of which the full adverse effects may not become clear for a period of time. Everything must be considered, what would happen if the other pilot suffered a laser attack on approach to JFK, all of a sudden you now have an A340 with two visually impaired pilots.

The decision to turn back is not taken lightly, it is a decision based on a wide array of factors, some of which take time to present themselves, such as what was probable in this case, a deteriorating (or not improving) eye condition.

AV Herald wrote:

A runway inspection reported no bird carcasses were recovered from the runway. The crew decided to return to Dublin and landed safely back on runway 28 about 35 minutes after departure.

I was listening to the ATC feed at the time and there was bits of bird debris spotted by another aircraft near the start of the runway (I think). Then the runway inspection people said it must have been a curlew. I'll listen to the archives later to see what was said exactly or where they found pieces of bird.

ETA: Huh. Don't recollect seeing the Garda chopper on this before. Probably there for the David Byrne funeral.

Ryanair EI-SEV 737-700 departing DUB to ATH at 16:30

TheFitz13 wrote: »

STK100M inbound DUB from Düsseldorf. Anybody know why it was there?

In MGL for maint.

Strumms wrote: »

AF5354 inbound to DUB from Farnborough according to FR24.. what be that all about ?

2016-02-15 AF5354 Farnborough (FAB) Dublin (DUB) - 16:49 - Landed 17:44
2016-02-15 AF5353 Rome (FCO) Farnborough (FAB) - 14:43 - Landed 16:05
2016-02-13 AF5352 Farnborough (FAB) Rome (FCO) - 14:02 - Landed 17:06
2016-02-13 AF5351 Dublin (DUB) Farnborough (FAB) - 10:38 - Landed 11:27

Any rugby on the weekend?

EI3408 (DUB-CFN) being operated by an ATR72-600, first time I've seen that aircraft operating that service.

Driving home through Galway City this evening I spotted some heavy iron, quite low (7,000 - 8,000ft) moving south to north - a rare sight over Galway.

Turns out it was this - https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/ei-une/#8d3548f

Flight testing, training flight?

I saw the Garda helicopter over Tallaght on FR24 I think on Friday.

reason for over 100 listeners on the feed?

Looks like LiveAtc fault, Top 50 feeds jumping all over the gaff!!

arubex wrote: »

Just noticed that Ryanair have another LJ45 now, M-ABJA. Callsign was briefly RYR3 yesterday into Dublin from Stansted.

Appears to have been delivered around the third week of January, ex-N849BA.

Joins M-ABEU and M-ABGV.

I posted about this in the old thread the daybit was delivered to DUB, went a bit unnoticed. The 3 of them will now rotate being based between DUB, STN and MAD.

Windshear.

EI163 (EIN163X) went around on short finals.