Birmingham Airport today!

[y2blade]

All closed..what's going on?

[FurtiveFreddy]

Plane skidded to a halt according to the news. All sorted now so they say...

[anonymous-user]

Monarch flight ZB467 arriving from Nice and operated by AURELA Airlines departed runway at 13.11 this afternoon. All open again and nobody hurt.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mldphotos/8008951013/...

[miln0039]

More bad press for Monarch.

Chartering Air Aurela and Air Explore might have saved them some cash but their reputation is taking a battering now with this to add to the list.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-19...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-19...

Why would you fly with them when EasyJet cost about the same?!?

[S2Mike]

We have flown this route many times, with several different airlines, its all about price and timings.
All should follow basic air safety guidelines, with the prices fluctuating by the day and time of flight its what fits your schedule.
They seem to take it in turns who is cheapest, but for such a short flight who the carrier is is really of no consequence to us, except when they skid off the runway!!!!

[MitchT]

Monarch: "one set of wheels left the taxi way bringing the aircraft to a stop"

[XKjimmy]

I returned from Nice last week, When flying out there from Birmingham with Monarch, we were informed that the flight had been sub contracted to Aurela.
The aircraft did seemed to have seen better days, It was a good flight though. I didn't really feel happy on it though..

[miln0039]

S2Mike said:

We have flown this route many times, with several different airlines, its all about price and timings.
All should follow basic air safety guidelines, with the prices fluctuating by the day and time of flight its what fits your schedule.
They seem to take it in turns who is cheapest, but for such a short flight who the carrier is is really of no consequence to us, except when they skid off the runway!!!!

After you, I'll take a spot on a plane less than 25 years old though thanks!

[Rob282828]

This is unbelievable.

At around one o'clock i was on www.flightradar24.com watching the planes coming in to Birmingham airport. One of the planes few directly over my house so i decided to follow it until it landed.

As the plane was coming into land i noticed that he was veering off the left at a displayed 160mph. The way he was going, he would never have made the runway and i thought this was rather odd. Sure enough, the radar on the screen showed him completely missing the runway and carrying on straight past the airport; then after this he turned left in a circle.

Although i was quite confused, i just thought he might be trying to get onto the other runway which cuts across so i carried on watching, and then the entire plane vanished off the screen!

Kept thinking the plane had crashed or something, but when i turned the news on tonight it said he landed successfully and it was just the wheels what came off when he was taxing around. What the heck?!?

Quite weird...

[Ultuous]

miln0039 said:

S2Mike said:

We have flown this route many times, with several different airlines, its all about price and timings.
All should follow basic air safety guidelines, with the prices fluctuating by the day and time of flight its what fits your schedule.
They seem to take it in turns who is cheapest, but for such a short flight who the carrier is is really of no consequence to us, except when they skid off the runway!!!!

After you, I'll take a spot on a plane less than 25 years old though thanks!

I thought being a car forum, people might be able to comprehend that effective maintenance procedures and VERY serious legislation mean that an older aircraft should be every bit as safe as a newer one...

As for your Easyjet comparison, they also lease older planes from other airlines when it suits operationally - it doesn't stop them being one of my favoured airlines!

[MitchT]

Ironically, the youngest plane I've ever flown on was a Monarch A321 (G-OZBM for anyone who's interested), but that didn't stop it rattling like a can of rusty knackers when the reverse thrust kicked in on landing at MAN. Conversely, Jet2's fleet of circa 25 yr old 737s and 757s feel as well screwed together as anything I've ever flown on, so I certainly wouldn't hesitate to step onto a plane on the grounds of age. As Ultuous suggests, it's more about maintenance than age.

[magpie215]

One of my colleagues got a call at around 1400 his friend was on a job and had flown into Birmingham in a light aircraft the aircraft landing after them was.....this one!!

He said it shaked and shuddered to a halt so not sure how fast it was going when it left the tarmac?

[XKjimmy]

Certainly when landing at Birmingham last week the aircraft didn't feel right at all, there was some juddering from the brakes.

Edited for spelling..

Edited by XKjimmy on Friday 21st September 22:58

[Dogwatch]

XKjimmy said:

Certainly when landing at Birmingham last week the aircraft didn't feel right at all, there was some juddering from the breaks.

Ah, yes. Them pesky breaks again.

[Rob282828]

BRAKES!!

[Aeroresh]

No, I think breaks is more fitting in this instance

[Martin43]

Most airlines (at some point) will bring in an aircraft from another airline to cover for things like maintenance (scheduled and unscheduled), technical problems and delays. There are several airlines that specialise in this area alone, Aurela and UK based Titan to name a couple.

I wouldn't say that I wouldn't fly on an aircraft over 25 years.

For example, as we're talking about Aurela. The average age of their fleet is 22 years old. The average age of the UK based airline Jet2 which is extremely successful and has been safely flying for years is the same, 22 years.

A few of the Monarch fleet are getting on too, one of their 757's is 25 years old!

Personally, I would quite happily fly on a UK or American based/registered 30 year old Boeing 737-200/300 but you wouldn't catch me on a 3 year old Nigerian or Indonesian Boeing 737!

Edited by Martin43 on Saturday 22 September 14:05