UAE | General
It is safe to fly in fog, says top pilot
Chief pilot of Emirates says advanced technology and weather reporting systems leave little to chance
- By Sharmila Dhal, Senior Reporter, XPRESS
- Published: 00:00 February 2, 2012
- Image Credit: © XPRESS/Pankaj Sharma
- Captain Alan Stealey at the
Emirates’ Network Control
Centre, Emirates Group
Headquarters in Dubai.
A video of a crosswind landing of an Emirates flight during a storm at Düsseldorf airport has gone viral wth over 2.8 million hits on YouTube. Watch it on Crosswind Landing
Dubai: As reports of fog disrupting flights in Abu Dhabi and other parts of the world make international headlines, a top pilot has reassured passengers that flying through bad weather has never been safer than now.
Captain Alan Stealey, Chief Pilot and Divisional Senior Vice-President Flight Operations at Emirates, told XPRESS on an exclusive tour of the Emirates Network Control Centre on Tuesday, "We've seen tremendous improvements in our aircraft and weather reporting systems and bad weather is no longer the issue it used to be. Flying is perfectly safe."
The captain should know. He has over 40 years of flying experience and currently oversees 3,200 Emirates' pilots who fly 360 flights to 118 destinations across the northern and southern hemispheres every day.
The NCC is where all flight planning is done based on global weather reports that are updated every six hours by forecast centres from across the world.
Dense fog not an issue
On January 30, a snowstorm in Istanbul prevented Emirates Flight 122 from departing on schedule. It arrived in Dubai two hours and 19 minutes late. On the same day, it was reported that fog disrupted some 60 flights across airlines in Abu Dhabi, with one of them even hitting the tarmac lights.
Stealey, who did not wish to comment on the situation in Abu Dhabi, clarified that in general, the safety of a flight during dense fog is seldom an issue.
"During fog, the auto pilot or avionics on the aircraft allows the plane to land effectively in zero visibility. This is a sophisticated Category 3 landing system, which is supported by a special instrument landing system on the ground." He said most airports in the world which experience fog are equipped with the automated system. And unless there is a technical snag in either the aircraft or ground equipment, touchdown in a fog cannot go wrong.
Where such systems do not exist, a plane is in holding and cannot land until the fog lifts. "This could impact the flow rate and cause delays to passengers, but safety is never compromised."
Stealey said Dubai, which usually experiences fog during September and March, has not seen any significantly foggy days in the past few months.
Other conditions
Dwelling on other weather conditions, Stealey said a sandstorm also reduces visibility and could pose challenges with gusty winds, but it entails a Category 1 landing system. He said unlike fog, where the auto pilot does the needful, a pilot has to manually cope with strong winds.
"Our pilots undergo refresher training and examining under simulated conditions every six months," he said, adding that they are up to date with new technology to manage various weather conditions.
He said a testimony to their advanced skills was a recent feat by the pilot of an Emirates Boeing 777-300 in Düsseldorf, Germany. A video of the landing, which has gone viral on YouTube, shows the pilot negotiating strong winds buffeting the aircraft from the side and straightening up just before the wheels touch down in a textbook landing. "That was difficult but well managed," said Stealey.
With regard to thunderstorm turbulence, he said advanced monitoring systems and communication between flights allow pilots to get advance information and fly around them. With clear air turbulence, which is hard to predict, a reduction in speed helps cope with the situation.
He said snowstorms are comparatively more challenging as the runway and aircraft have to be cleared of the snow before take-off. "We do face challenges in the northeastern seaboard of the US, where there are winter storms but our pilots are well trained to handle the situation."
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