High winds cause problems for landing planes in Bilbao, Spain.

[GloriaSmud]

Just saw this on the news ~ my face was

I fly big planes for a living, and all I've got to say is - fuck me! Off to post this link somewhere piloty now.

Why on earth didn't they divert?

Funnily enough, the origin of tonight's/tomorrow's low starts it's development in Spain....

Wow! Is it so going to affect planes taking off?

The winds that we will get will probably only gust to around 50-60 mph in the SW I think which id have thought would not be much of a problem (but a bit more of a problem if the winds were side on to a landing plane) less strong gusts elsewhere. However the winds tonight tomorrow will be in quite an unusual direction (easterly or ENE). Hopefully backinthebox can come and update us on any operational effect that the direction might have.

Oh interesting. The cross winds at Bilbao were only 65kph.

I think most airports in the uk are aligned east west, to fit in with our prevailing wind direction? Heathrow is. So tomorrow should be fine!

Wish I hadn't added that last sentence!! Famous last words and all that.

Our aircraft have landing and takeoff crosswind limits of 40 knots (about 48mph,) and ground operating limits of 60 knots (70mph.) We factor the wind if it is not blowing directly across us. As most of our runways in the UK are built in a predominantly east-west direction, it really only means we have can land due to strong winds when the wind is over 50mph directly from the north or south. This is very rare. The more usual problem in the UK with high winds is that Air Traffic slows down the arrival rate of aircraft to increase safety margins, leading to queues.

I have no idea what that wind was Bilbao - the runway there is 12/30 meaning a East-north-easterly orientation. But it looks like you had to be brave or stupid to take it on! I'd be seriously considering diverting. The problem we have on the day is that you are relying on information from outside agencies to make you decision to go somewhere on, but when you get there you may find things are different than advertised! Having had a quick check of the last 14 days weather records at Bilbao, there is nothing recorded to explain why these planes were having a bit of bother.

A little bit of a news report on the winds.

Thank you for taking the time to explain backinthebox, that's really interesting and potentially useful information :)