Sparklehorse12 From Australia, joined Feb 2007, 869 posts, RR: 2 Posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 1545 times:
I hope someone can answer this question;
Yesterday I was on QF539 from BNE to SYD. We were loaded, door was shut then we sat there, sat there and ...sat there. Finally the captain came over and said
" Ladies and Gentlemen there is a storm cell with lightning that has just passed the 5 mile radius of BNE airport. When this happens and there is lightning within a 5 mile radius they close the apron. This means there is no-on ethere to push us back. The tower can't give us an ETD as the storm cell is not moving very quickly".
I looked out the window and could see rain way off in the distance.....SQ and DJ were rolling out to take off. Is this a government regulation or a QF regulation?
It seemed very strange, there was no storm around that I could see and 5 miles is a heck of the long way. Eventually after wating for 40 mins we took off...strange. I can;t imagine closing our warehouse and distribution because of a storm 5 miles away......
I believe it is a QF regulation only, as the same thing happens at SYD during electrical storms. IIRC, if there is an electrical storm within so many kilometres of the airport, QF personnel working outside are entitled to stop work and seek shelter inside. If a third party airline has a ground handling contract with QF, then they will be affected as well.
Regards, JetMech
JetMech split the back of his pants. He can feel the wind in his hair.
Sparklehorse12 From Australia, joined Feb 2007, 869 posts, RR: 2 Reply 2, posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 1504 times:
Quoting JetMech (Reply 1): I believe it is a QF regulation only, as the same thing happens at SYD during electrical storms. IIRC, if there is an electrical storm within so many kilometres of the airport, QF personnel working outside are entitled to stop work and seek shelter inside. If a third party airline has a ground handling contract with QF, then they will be affected as well.
Regards, JetMech
Thanks JetMech.....I guess safety is the 1 priority and so it should be...
I agree with a lot of QF's ramp safety procedures. The funny thing is, they seem to be the only airline who implements these measures. Many times I have been outside in electrical storms, feeling very much that I should be inside for safety as much as comfort.
Regards, JetMech
JetMech split the back of his pants. He can feel the wind in his hair.
Sparklehorse12 From Australia, joined Feb 2007, 869 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 1408 times:
Quoting JetMech (Reply 3):
I agree with a lot of QF's ramp safety procedures. The funny thing is, they seem to be the only airline who implements these measures. Many times I have been outside in electrical storms, feeling very much that I should be inside for safety as much as comfort.
Regards, JetMech
I know how insistant they are about safety procedures. Staff who work at the QF 'alphabet' in mascot, if they cross the road against the light even though there is no traffic, can lead to dismissal...
Redcenterflyer From Australia, joined Feb 2008, 63 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 1337 times:
happened to me in Darwin around midnight 12 December, but I was on Tiger from SIN. As we arrived and were in the aisle about to deplane, CAPT came on and said the airport operations was shutting down due to lightning. We had to wait in
Customs area about 50 minutes for our bags. Safety comes first, and I know I wouldn't want to be out there on the tarmac unloading a plane in the lightning. The storm was right on top of us though, had one DJ flight divert to Katherine.
ExFATboy From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2974 posts, RR: 9 Reply 6, posted (5 years 2 months 3 weeks 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 1266 times:
Lightning can strike farther away from the storm cell itself than you might think - sometimes as far as 10 miles away from a cloud, although that distance is rare. It's common in Florida for golf courses to sound the lightning warning when the cloud is still 5 miles away, and when I worked for a securities firm in Tampa we would start our backup generator at the 5-mile warning mark as well. At TPA I've seen ground crews go inside before it starts raining, because the thunderclouds are already within a few miles and there's already danger of ground strikes.
So what you saw is not at all unusual - 5 miles may be a bit conservative, but on the other hand the ground crew are standing around in a big flat area with lots of metal around them.
Sponsor Message: 
From Australia, joined Feb 2007, 869 posts, 
From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2974 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
