I have written to Thomson about Kim and praised her for everything she did.I wrote to them before I posted here.

Now I know this thread is about the volcanic ash however there are a few posts in the thread re the radar24 website (which is now my latest addiction).

I wonder if someone could kindly answer a question as to why there is very little activity over Scotland. I mean Glasgow is a fairly busy airport and every time I look there is a minimum of 1 plane in the area. Here in Aberdeen there has been very little activity on the Radar24 yet if you look at arrivals and departures at Aberdeen there are definitely flights coming in and landing yet they don't all seem to appear on the radar. Would love to know why?

Thanks

hello wendy!

the data comes from volunteers not official links, they have to buy their own receivers and connect them via their internet. If they switch anything off to save power you lose an area. Most of France was off yesterday! Also not all planes use the right sort of transponder so some won't be picked up at all.

I think we may need a dedicated thread about these tracker sites now so many of us are addicted!

Hi Wendy . In the Flightradar24 web site look on the right for 'the about ' button. Click on that for information as to how they receive data.

Steve and tpebob

THANK YOU very much for explaining the above. MMMM we need some more volunteers for Scotland please

Honestly hubby and I were like a couple of kids yesterday watching a BA plane come in. We saw it coming up from Dundee and then just South of Aberdeen it turns out over the North sea slightly. Closely watching it on the radar descending, I said to hubby I will stand at our back door and look for it (they come over quite low to the right of our house) and then I saw it and was shouting "It's there, it's there, quick come and look" Honestly you would think we had never seen a plane int he sky before. But to see it on the radar and see the same thing just over your house was quite spectacular!!

sugarbabe61,

As steve8482 mentions, the information comes from intercepting and decoding SBS-1 (ACARS) transmissions from aircraft. This information is collected using radio receiving equipment such as AirNav RadarBox, about £400 a set. Not all aircraft / airlines use SBS-1 / ACARS so don't show on this system. I use one and feed information in to Virtual Radar. As the information is transmitted over VHF radio, the range is limited depending on atmospheric conditions and the receiving antenna (strength of signal). It also relies on people feeding information in to the system. That's why not everywhere is covered as there aren't enough signals being fed in to the system and they dont cover all areas.

Darren

I'm following a Manchester - Munich Easyjet to check what the real flightime is and just as it's reached the Bavarian border they've lost it!! the most interesting was Tuesday evening just before the UK airpace opened, there were half a dozen BA 747s going round in circles over Ireland.

steve8482 wrote:

I'm following a Manchester - Munich Easyjet to check what the real flightime is and just as it's reached the Bavarian border they've lost it!! the most interesting was Tuesday evening just before the UK airpace opened, there were half a dozen BA 747s going round in circles over Ireland.

And didn't they do well !! I have never been a fan of Willie Walsh...until now!

Post removed due to potentially libellous comments. Dazbo HT Mod

Where was the info that they nearly ran out of fuel? No mention of a "Mayday" call which surely would have made the tabloids. Diversion does not mean that they were running out of fuel just that they were being prudent not knowing what the onward delays might be.

Post removed due to potentially libellous comments. Dazbo HT Mod

That's fine Steve but when they diverted, it's not necassarily because they 'ran out of fuel'. It is highly unlikely that would ever be the case and as busdriver mentions, unless a fuel emergency was declared and you heard that on VHF, there would be no way of knowing that from Flight Radar. You can't assume that's the case as you don't know what fuel quatities were loaded before the flight. Diversions are a daily occurance for any number of reasons. There are strict operational requirements for fuel planning with adequate reserves built in to the equasion. They may have diverted because they were approaching their holding limits, but that's not the same as running out of fuel. The aircraft types involved have a range far beyond what they flew that day, assuming the fuel quantities. Shannon will always have been a listed diversion and I can't see the aircraft leaving the ground unless they had everything in the flight plan and somewhere to land, ie Shannon, Glasgow or Madrid, I think even Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt were open then as well, unless the London airports opened. There were plenty of options available and I'm sure fuel quantities loaded to suit. BA may have sent the flights to put pressure on the system, but they will not have put the aircraft or passengers in any danger at any time.

Darren

Darren

I accept they wouldn't have left it to fuel emergency stage having reached Ireland but it was an unknown situation and when they took off they couldn't be sure what state Ireland would be in. Remainder of post removed due to potentially libellous comments. Dazbo HT Mod

Sorry to be rude BUT if you only listen to the voice of reason in Darren. He gives so much information to all of us. He spends a lot of time answering and explaining even minor issues and I for one have the greatest respect for him for his knowledge and his willingness to give of his time to all of us.

If you are talking about diversions I will give you a very simple example.
2 years ago I was coming back from Ireland flying I think Jet2 Belfast or it could have been to Leeds. The flight left a bit late after take off the Captain made an announcement that we might need to divert to I think Doncaster due to high winds. Leeds can have a problem at times due to certain weather conditions. A little latter the Captain came on to announce that it would be safe and we arrived at Leeds as scheduled. They also said if we had to divert then a coach would be laid on to take us home.

Ryanair may have decided that it would cost more to pay compensation and so shut their operation down. Initally he was on TV saying that people would only get what they paid for the ticket. He had to quickly had to make a U turn when he realised that his action would damage RYANAIR. I do fly to Dublin with them but I don't particularly like the ruthless way he runs his business.
Travel i nsurance companies who initially said they would not pay claims Direct Travel and others were also forced to U turn as to do not so in the long term would make their clients elsewhere in the future.

Enough said.

I was not able to fly to Miami to start a cruise but by Monday I had found a new cruise for 14 nights in the Caribbean with X. I am so looking forward to it and now another friend will travel with us. Yes we are the lucky ones who were at home safe and sound. For those of you out there still trying to get home I hope it happens for you soon.
My 12 year old granddaughter got home late Saturday night. She had been in Rome on a school trip. Their teachers with the group did well with assistance from their TA to get them home by coach Ferry and another Coach at Dover. Well done St Aiden's and all those involved in the rescue!

Sue

if your stuck in south africa, and theres no room, bribe away!

the same probably applies for other 3rd world / corrupt places

a friend who was told there was no seats until the 29th, got home on the 22nd, with a $100 bribe at the customer service counter!

I think the one disappointing aspect of this whole affair is that so little research has been done since that first major incident almost 30 years ago. Zero tolerance, whilst investigations were underway, was fair enough but to have done so little research in the intevening period is quite baffling.

For a view on why the regulators didn't have access to safe ash level data, I'd recommend reading an article by David Adam and Dan Milmo published in The Guardian newpaper (and on-line) on 21st April entitled "Why airlines resisted setting safe dust level for flights - until now".

I've not made enough posts to provide a link to the article, but I'm sure most search engines will find it for you.

Here you are.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/21/airlines-flights-ban-airspace

got home from mexico yesterday and i would just like to say a big well done to thomsons,their rep at our hotel kept us upto date regarding flights and hotel accomadation and the situation back home even correctly predicting last saturday when we could expect to have a flight home.also on landing they had reps just outside the arrivals lounge handing out literature explaining the procedure for any compensation claims that could be made.