Leezyjet From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 4041 posts, RR: 55 Posted (10 years 5 months 2 weeks 5 days 11 hours ago) and read 1993 times:
PIA has a 743 grounded at LHR that has been stuck on stand R34 for the last 2-3 days. I heard that it has some kind of problem with the nose gear, and the a/c cannot be moved as it could collapse. Anyone else heard anything ?.
It's causing us major probs as the A346's can only use R34, M32 and K16, and last night Air Jamaica (handled by UA) managed to break the jetty on M32 just before our a/c came onstand and we already had one on K16 so we had to coach the pax about 50ft from the gate to the a/c steps !!.
Worst part of it is that the BAA do not have anyone to fix the jetbridges on weekends !! -like the airport is a 9-5 M-F kinda place....... Ummm Me thinks Not.
"She Rolls, 45 knots, 90, 135, nose comes up to 20 degrees, she's airborne - She flies, Concorde Flies"
Leezyjet From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 4041 posts, RR: 55 Reply 3, posted (10 years 5 months 2 weeks 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 1908 times:
Treg,
It's just mighty busy, with alot of well used equipment (although that jetty was one of the newest ones), and also the old phrase - 'Pay Peanuts - get Monkeys' kinda sums up certain jobs at LHR. There is also a severe lack of space for parking equipment, so it usually ends up being parked where it shouldn't be - on the stands, but the BAA won't do anything about it. Each time they build a new extension, they build into the equipment parking bays, then don't provide an alternative place for that equipment to be parked.
Annoying thing about that jetty breaking, was that the battery for the emergency back off mode was flat, so they had to physically push it back off the a/c with one of those electric bagagge tugs !!!. It added a further 20mins onto the 20+ mins Air Jamaica were already delayed, causing my flight to depart over 1 hour late, once it finally got onto the stand (20 mins before std)
"She Rolls, 45 knots, 90, 135, nose comes up to 20 degrees, she's airborne - She flies, Concorde Flies"
Bigmo747 From United States of America, joined Dec 2000, 306 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (10 years 5 months 2 weeks 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 1806 times:
The PIA 743 sounds like an interesting story--i can imagine that happening to a PIA 742--but to a 743?? plz keep us posted if u hear anything more.
Airchabum From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 769 posts, RR: 12 Reply 6, posted (10 years 5 months 2 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 1790 times:
Hi Leezyjet
You had a good weekend then? Ok so we (VS) create some of our own problems by scheduling everything pretty tight and night stopping the odd Lagos flight every now and then (oops!) but I get the impression that LHR just can't cope with the amount of planes/pax that go through every day. I could rant on for ages but basically the place is just an embarrassment. Roll on T5!
On a different subject, did you or anyone witness the Air Canada a/c that apparently got stuck in the mud? (Friday?) I gather it was on its way to 09R.
VC-10 From United Kingdom, joined Oct 1999, 3677 posts, RR: 37 Reply 9, posted (10 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 1631 times:
night stopping the odd Lagos flight every now and then the last Lagos cancellation was due to Air Atlanta Crewing problems - nothing to do with VS.
The PIA NLG problem is due to a part of the outer shock strut cylinder failing and a lump falling out towards the top of the leg. Very unsual. I have some photo's of it but I am not in a position to upload them at the moment
Leezyjet From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 4041 posts, RR: 55 Reply 11, posted (10 years 5 months 1 week 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 1386 times:
GF-A330,
Reg is AP-BFV.
Saw it the other day when the nose gear had been removed, looked kinda weird seeing a 747 with no nose wheel.
It's was supported on jacks, one each side between the a/c inlets and the wings, and one under the tail, like on 747 combi's, also had one in the nose wheel bay.
Bigmo747 From United States of America, joined Dec 2000, 306 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (10 years 5 months 1 week 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 1344 times:
B-HXB From New Zealand, joined Jan 2001, 744 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (10 years 5 months 1 week 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 1276 times:
Well, I guess they got it moved because our CX flight left from gate 32. Got an excellent view of the VS 340-600 at 34 too while waiting for a few connecting pax.
Yeah, Heathrow's a mess. Especially at check-in for Cathay - the queue stretched from zone B all the way down to zone D before someone had the intelligence to move the queueing pax into AA's holding area on the other side of zone B.
Although the airside holding area is a lot brighter than it used to be.
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From United States of America, joined Dec 2000, 306 posts, 
Ok so we (VS) create some of our own problems by scheduling everything pretty tight and night stopping the odd Lagos flight every now and then (oops!) but I get the impression that LHR just can't cope with the amount of planes/pax that go through every day. I could rant on for ages but basically the place is just an embarrassment. Roll on T5!
From New Zealand, joined Jan 2001, 744 posts, 
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