Aww cool I haven't been plane spotting for ages but I might be going at the end of May. I used to go plane spotting in the Heathrow Visitor Centre but I haven't been there for years. Does Birmingham have any US airlines any more? I can't imagine Ryanair doing long haul. I'd rather walk than fly on any of that tosser's planes. I don't even like flying them from Ireland to London!

Sadly the viewing gallery at Heathrow has been closed for quite a few years. You can stand under the approach at Hatton Cross thought which is quite cool.

Shame about that I remember the Visitor Centre though. I used to like it. Do you get a good view there?

I worked for BA at that time and have t-shirts with every single one of those on them! They were bloody awful and I wear them to bed. I've got a lot of BA t-shirts actually, never wore any of them in public.

Was that the one on top of The Queens Building? I remember that one well. It had a great gift shop, and a little cafe up there as well.

How come they gave you all those t-shirts? Were you a flight attendant there?

I think I am the only person on here who actually liked the British Airways world tails. I thought they were great and original and reflected the 'cool britannia' attitude that we had in the late 90's.

No, i worked in the call centre. They were always giving out t-shirts, must have been to boost morale! I can't remember why I got so many, maybe other staff didn't want theirs and I'd take anything that's free.

Ah right. I wonder did anyone wear the t-shirts in public?

No one that I knew! I've got lots of t-shirts from working in travel that I wear around the house, got a Star Alliance one on now. Not that you really needed to know that!

The Star Alliance one sounds cool! What's it like? Does it just have the logo on the front?

I'm wearing aviators now

Birmingham only has United. In the past they had American Airlines for at least 7 years, and US Airways for the summer of 2009. Fair to say it hasn't worked out well for them.

Taken from an article, found some information regarding a new service at BIrmingham.


http://www.livemint.com/Companies/f0...it-Nandan.html

So, just three-five months until Birmingham gets a new direct India service which they've been missing for four and a half years. It'll be interesting if this materializes.

US Airways don't seem to have much success in Europe, do they? Here in Ireland US Airways used to fly from Shannon to Philadelphia and they pulled it in October 2009. They're bringing it back this summer (starting 22 May according to http://www.usairways.com/en-US/trave...s/shannon.html) but I don't know what'll happen when they merge with American. I expect American will take the route over from them because Philly is one of US Airways' main hubs and I suppose AA will gain all of US Airways' hubs post-merger, much like what happened after the Delta/Northwest and Continental/United mergers.

US Airways pulled out of Gatwick as well and they now fly to Heathrow instead, which makes more sense since most of the other Star Alliance (who they're part of) carriers are based in Heathrow. Wasn't there some regulation that prevented US carriers other than American and United from flying from the US to Heathrow?

Further to trans-atlantic air travel - back in the late 40's
it was possible to listen in on most ordinary domestic radios that had SW to airliners from engine start-up at
LAP - following their progress as they made their way via Shannon Newfoundland and Idlewild. VHF was in its infancy in those days but I had aquired a magnificent ex RAF Rll32 receiver. Very rare in those days
- taking up the space of a chest of drawers on its fitted stand. Twidling the dials would also bring in Rome and RIO de Janerio as controllers and pilots exchanged reporting and position reports. All fascinating stuff for a schoolboy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN3waJIc574



What the hell happened?

Something caused it to enter into an irrecoverable stall. Reports suggest that the AoA was in the region of 85 degrees. The theory is that the cargo came loose, slid to the the back of the aircraft and thus dramatically altered the C of G. This could have been coupled with microburst activity at the time which momentarily pushed the nose high anyway. Had it occurred at altitude it 'may' have been recoverable... (I stress may). If the cargo was not secure then who knows.
Still, a terrible loss of life and a hull loss for Boeing.

As Bagram has steep approach and departure procedures (to avoid SAMs), one theory is that one of the military vehicles it was carrying broke the straps which were holding them to the floor/bulkheads. Heading to the back quickly, the centre of gravity shifted too far and too quickly to make it recoverable.

Here's the other thing. Given the weight of that particular payload, could it have punctured the fuselage on its journey back or hit something else that could have done the same thing?

What's the most horrific plane crash you've ever seen?

Do we have to do air crashes?

I'm the world's worst flyer and just booked a holiday in Sept which involves LHR-SFO, LAS-LAS, LAS-EWR and EWR-LHR.



I'm dreading it!!

The Reno air show crash is probably the worst one I've seen on Youtube.

That's a lot of flying! Which airline(s) are you flying on?

Or Rammstein.

There was an apparent near miss involving an Airbus A320 that's only recently been reported:

The Airbus A320 was making its final approach to Glasgow Airport on 2 December...