I never considered myself as a....

[Erin]

...plane spotter, but this has got me hooked. Clearly the UK airports are about to open. Why else would a handfull of planes be circling within miles of LHR and LGW

[Erin]

and then they landed.

[Hightower]

Perhaps they were the "Test" planes that the Airlines were using to check what effects the ash was having on the engines?

Where source did you get these maps from? It kind of looks interesting if a little anorakish

[Bigmuz7]

well were not exactly talking a lot of flights there .. compared to normal air space movements

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Erin

...plane spotter, but this has got me hooked. Clearly the UK airports are about to open. Why else would a handfull of planes be circling within miles of LHR and LGW

Aye - we've rewritten the rule book on flying in ash - because it was getting inconvenient (which probably means the media droning on about it was distracting from the election campaign).

[willk]

There is no safety book for ash. It was a safety 'elf's wet dream - Global Control cos you can't be too careful. Watch 'em not fall out of the sky! Codders for PM, I say!

[martini]

I heard a few planes left the US bound for Heathrow earlier, I doubt they would've taken off if they didn't know if they could land. And surely they wouldn't fly trans atlantic with no passengers, things could be looking up!

I wouldnt care less except I've got a Mercury tech booked to fly over and sort my outboard on thursday, fingers crossed!

[Erin]

The images were captured from flightradar24.com and it turns out they were pretty much all BA flights who were waiting for the curfew to be lifted at 10pm. They must have forced the CAA or Government into conceding.

I wouldn't care less either, except we're meant to be flying to Istanbul tomorrow. Doubtful they'll have cleared the backlog by then.