Flightradar - some poor passengers really aren't landing at Madeira at the moment

[cakeorwine]

2 landing attempts and still not down.

I think it's windy there

Flightradar24: Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map

Good morning.
here’s hoping those poor pilots and travellers have more luck today
i’m off on a 2 1/2 hour journey so will have another look when I get there!

That's interesting - and you can see that from the approach and the clear decision point.

I did take a quick look this morning - and i bet I can draw Madeira quite well now!

I did some flights in the Everest region of Nepal - some interesting approaches there with some steep approaches. And Lukla "airport" is interesting!!

Just watching some friends approaching Lanzarote.

@notimagain

Dp has the premium version and was able to overlay the flight paths, the failed TUI was coming in just to the east of the TAP and other successful landings, might have only been 1/2 mile, you can't tell, but there's a little marina and that's what seemed to be the difference but we can't tell what air traffic control are telling them of course! I just feel bad for the passengers and crew, really tough and has certainly put me off going for a holiday there!

Don’t be put off. It’s a beautiful island and people are so friendly. Just got back from there and would definitely be going again.

If you can land that is 🫣🤣

🤣

Last night's flight from Stuttgart is on the way to Funchal from Gran Canaria. I really hope they can land.

And they landed

@notimagain Thanks for the explanations. Very interesting.

Glad today looking better for arrivals.

I have flown into Madeira - we took Mum for her 80th - and we weren't aware of any issues with the airport, or how scary it is! The most frightening thing is the statue of Ronaldo!

We also went to Madeira on a cruise - so there is an option for those who would like to visit, but won't fly now!

Yesterday's Easyjet from London which should have got to Funchal at lunchtime, but ended up finally landing at Faro at 5pm (after a diversion to Tenerife), meaning an overnight hotel in Faro for the poor passengers, has finally just arrived at Funchal, after leaving Faro around 11am this morning. Around 26 hours late!! Must have been one hell of a cheer on that flight when it touched down!

Maybe there should be a Flight Radar thread we could follow? That way it'd show up on "watching" whenever something interesting was happening? I really enjoyed yesterday!

I watched yesterday’s easyJet land. So pleased after all that time travelling.

I got caught up.in this thread last night. Really felt for poor TUI when TAP managed it. It was more interesting and emotional than watching TV!

Good idea to have a Flight Radar thread

Interesting thanks...

It's all water under bridge today but FWIW a lot depends on where that half a mile of difference in track happened.

TBH I'd expect all the aircraft tracks to pretty much be superimposed initially, from leaving the hold out over the ocean until crossing that little peninsula that juts out to the north east of the airport. That's simply because that's where the beacon is located that the aircraft aim for to comply with the poor weather/ instrument flying part of the procedure...

After passing that point I would expect to see tracks diverge - you'd expect the "landers", those who saw the runway at the beacon, to jink slightly west towards the coastline to align with the runway centre line (there's an Easyjet just doing that jink as I type.).. OTOH the "go-arounders" who have maybe caught a patch of low cloud and saw nothing, will start heading the other way, more easterly, staying off shore.

FWIW ATC don't have any input into the tracking on this, i.e. they don't give heading or steering instructions, the crew follow a published procedure for the instrument flying bit then fly the rest visually if they are OK to land.

....Sorry for all the verbiage, I know a picture is worth a thousand words but unfortunately the one or two youtube videos illustrating landing on this runway show it on good weather days when you can see and so track directly to the runway from miles out, they don't show the slightly "bendy" approach that happens in poor weather.

I've also yet to find a suitable diagram to illustrate how this works...the "plates" the crew use that depict all this are not a easy read for the uninitiated. and my artistic skills probably aren't up to presenting a "this is one I drew at home"....

Same happened with Easyjet flights - one half an hour ahead diverted to Tenerife but the one behind it landed successfully at Funchal before the earlier one had landed at Tenerife. Seems to be luck of the draw really!

@bobomomo

Hi again, (I can hear the groans)

In one last attempt to try and put this TUI vs. TAP thing from last night to bed I couldn't resist the temptation to have a look at the sort of replay you mentioned to see where these aircraft flew in relation to this all important radio beacon (which is visible on Google earth BTW).

Bearing in mind the limits of Flightradar's accuracy it looks as if the TUI aircraft tracked exactly over the top of the relevant beacon..(that's the instrument rating passed.😀)

OTOH it looks like the TAP aircraft does indeed deviate, slightly to the right before the beacon, i.e. to the west and so doesn't overfly it...

That could be explained by the TAP crew getting a lucky short lived break in the weather, meaning they got a look at the runway lights early and turned off the instrument procedure for a visual approach before they got to the beacon.

Finally and maybe to address some previous comments the really important thing is that the TUI crew had the aircraft exactly where it should have been for the instrument let down they were performing...the lateral trajectory/tracking was spot on. The fact that it didn't result in a landing was down to bad luck with the weather.

@lunarleap

I'm not sat here stressing about flying. All I said was being on a plane doing this will it land/won't it land would be pretty scary for me and I will avoid it as a holiday destination.

I am totally with you on this . I am not keen on flying - but I like my holidays and I think I would like a ferry / long drive even less . I have actually found the watching of planes land in difficult conditions to be helpful as I realise that it is just a part of people's jobs and not an uncommon occurrence. Previously, had I been on a plane that was trying to land in windy conditions and it had accelerated back into the sky again at the last minute, I would have thought I was going to die. Now I understand why it would happen .

However, like you, I wouldn't intentionally put myself in a position where a difficult landing was more likely - so I won't be going to Madeira either .

Having read this thread and watched the planes yesterday I am oddly reassured. And certainly if, when I go, we have a failed attempt to land I will know it’s kind of normal for Madeira and won’t be too scared.

What's going on in sao Paulo?

@lunarleap I was just about to ask that!

Im loosing time to time most viewed flights again! Watching the LATAM flight at the moment

I'm fascinated by all this but fairly new to it. A question if someone is willing to answer, how do you know there is something going on in Sao Paolo as mentioned above, for example. I can see that the flight is the No. 2 tracked flight on FR, but why are people tracking it or any others that are the 'most tracked'. How do they know to track them?

I can understand if they've sent out a 7700 code (general emergency) that people would know to track, but I can't work out the reason for most of them.