Flt SU2030

On flightradar24.com, A320 from Moscow, in a holding patern for about 30 min now, altitude 18000 ft. Flt SU2030

All other flights depart and land normally. I expect flaps or landing gear fault.

[Edited 2012-12-31 03:48:56]

Plane was supposed to land at 10:30 AM CET, delayed until 11:30 according to the airport website bud.hu, and is still in a holding at 18000 ft.

I wonder how much fuel is onboard, getting close to one hour in holding now.

Listening to BUD approach here: http://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=BUD
They've just been told to cancel holding and descend.

[Edited 2012-12-31 04:01:29]

Yes, see him now, still at FL180.
I can count around 17 circuits around the holding pattern already.

Descending now through 11000ft.

Climbing to 16000 , diverting to Vienna. Something to do with visibility , but others are landing normally. Could it be that the ILS systems onboard failed?

What a mess. Ryanair going into a holding now, Brussels Airlines aborted landing at flt lvl 14. Easyjet going to hold now as well. Visibility between 150 -275 mtr

Ah, borderline visibility at BUD, hopefully he can get straight in at VIE as he must be well through his fuel by now.

Brussels airlines aborted 2nd landing at last moment, holding now, Ryanair trying 31L now. Easyjet holding.

Quoting KL911 (Reply 8): Easyjet holding.

Easyjet (U23853, G-EZPG) appears to be diverting to Vienna and the Ryanair flight just landed.

Weird thing is that I am in Eastern Budapest and its clear and sunny.  

Quoting KL911 (Reply 6): flt lvl 14.

FL14? Sure you meant 1400ft?

Latest METAR: LHBP 311300Z VRB03KT 0100 R31L/0275N R31R/0175N FZFG VV001 M02/M02 Q1026 NOSIG

Freezing fog, vis 100m, RVR 275/175m CAT III conditions. Pilots probably not capable, just holding to wait to see if it clears.

[Edited 2012-12-31 05:29:53]

[Edited 2012-12-31 05:31:24]

Quoting cloudyapple (Reply 11): FL14? Sure you meant 1400ft?

Yep  

Quoting cloudyapple (Reply 11):

Seems weird that Aeroflot pilots would not be CATIII-rated. Maybe the aircraft isn't, or a system failure/MEL is preventing it to operate CATIII.

Quoting KL911 (Reply 10):

Yeah, interesting indeed! We passed BUD this early morning on LX147 to ZRH and all of Budapest was in the clear, yet the METAR we requested showed CAT III conditions so bad thatnwe couldn't use it as an emergency aerodrome 

Quoting francoflier (Reply 13): Seems weird that Aeroflot pilots would not be CATIII-rated

I'm sure it happens at every airline. One time on the ramp at PHL you couldn't see 15Ft in front of you. We were completely fogged in and waiting for the final flight to land from Vegas. The plane had to divert to KPIT to pick up another pilot because the captain was not qualified to land CatIII. This was working for WN.

I just flew over Budapest two hours ago and landed in Belgrade. It looked quite clear over the city, certainly at 11:30am all of the city and airport seemed visible. It was extremely turbulent over Hungary however. Belgrade is shrouded in deep fog however

Quoting SandroZRH (Reply 14): Yeah, interesting indeed! We passed BUD this early morning on LX147 to ZRH and all of Budapest was in the clear, yet the METAR we requested showed CAT III conditions so bad thatnwe couldn't use it as an emergency aerodrome

Hey Sandro,

I flew LX last week, BUD-ZRH-AMS and was wondering if you were crew before I noticed you are flying the big birds now, congrats! Enjoying it?

Funny thing is that now the fog is really thick inside the city, and the airport receives planes without problems. 

Quoting cloudyapple (Reply 11): Pilots probably not capable

Quoting francoflier (Reply 13): Seems weird that Aeroflot pilots would not be CATIII-rated.

Could be an RVR limitation as well. If the RVR is below CAT III A minimums (less than 600ft, so roughly 200m, which according to the METAR at the time, very well could have been), even a CAT III certified pilot and aircraft don't necessarily have permission to try the approach.

Thenoflyzone

[Edited 2012-12-31 08:43:28]

How does the different landing category certification work? Why can a pilot not be certified to land in a certain weather category? Can he not just use the autoland? Apologies if the questions seem odd, but I've always wondered about this.

At least in the USA, Captains that are newly checked out are considered "Hi Minimums" for a period of time. Those minimums gradually improve as time in the seat increases, and culminates after reaching the minimum number of hours required and conducting 2 CATIII approaches in the airplane. Additionally, if this is a Captains FIRST upgrade seat, the times are different (higher)

It seems like the visibility is bad again, a lot of holdings going on over BUD ...

Quoting emp (Reply 21): It seems like the visibility is bad again, a lot of holdings going on over BUD ...

Yes, im watching flightradar24 and listening to ATC, fun for me, not for them. I count 2x Wizzair, 1 easyjet, 1 Air France and 1 Turkish in holding or trying to land again after holding.

Any development to the SU flight?