BAA sells London Gatwick Airport for GBP1.5 bln
Under pressure to reduce its dominance in London airports, BAA has agreed to sell Gatwick airport for GBP1.51 billion pounds ($2.46 billion) “to a consortium involving Credit Suisse and General Electric.”
Ferrovial said Wednesday that it expected to make a capital loss of around EUR142 million euros ($212.6 million) against its consolidated earnings following the sale by airport operator BAA, majority owned by the Spanish group.
It comes three years after it paid GBP10.1 billion ($16.6 billion) for BAA, which operates seven UK airports as well as international operations.
Plane dismantled in search of mobile phone
A passenger, who just couldn’t wait until the Jet2 plane reached the gate before turning on his mobile phone, was embarrassed when he dropped the phone and it slid out of sight.
Since the phone was on, the plane couldn’t take off because the mobile’s signal could interfere with the navigation systems. The passengers had to wait for three hours as technicians tore out the row of seats this idiot was sitting in, as well as the cockpit area.
NTSB joins investigation of Delta flight that landed on taxiway
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating how a Delta Air Lines wide-body jet landed on a taxiway rather than on the runway.
Delta Flight 60 from Rio de Janeiro to Atlanta touched down at 6:05 a.m. EDT on Taxiway M, a two-mile-long strip of concrete parallel to Runway 27 Right at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The plane carried 182 passengers and 11 crewmembers, and there were no injuries.
Fortunately, Taxiway M was clear of planes and vehicles when the Boeing 767 landed. It was active at the time of the incident.
Delta says the pilots involved have been put on leave pending the investigations.
Incidents like this are not uncommon. The Seattle Times has reported that, at least eight times since 1999, aircrafts have mistaken a taxiway for the runway at Seattle-Tacoma airport. Three actually landed while five changed their flight paths.
In reverse, two aircrafts have taken off from a taxiway at Anchorage Airport instead of a runway. On November 5, 2008 an Eva Air cargo plane took off from taxiway Y instead of runway 32. In January 2002 a China Airlines passenger jet took off from another taxiway, barely clearing a snow berm.
(Photo: caribb/Flicker Creative Commons)
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Give the guys a break at least they picked the right airport! :-) I recall when the original Frontier Airlines was in business one of their planes landed at the Salt Lake Number 2 airport, which is strictly for smaller private aircraft. To get the plane off the ground again the airliner was stripped of all seats, galleys, etc. and given the bare minimum fuel for it’s journey to the Salt Lake City International Airport.
Or there was the Northwest A319 that landed at an Air Force base outside of Rapid City instead of the Rapid City Airport. Granted the runways were long enough to land and to take off again without difficulty however the passengers were alarmed when the plane came to a halt and was surrounded by armed men.