Heathrow closure, Friday morning

[Mike]

Playback on Heathrow Webtrack shows a RAF British Aerospace Bae 146 CC.2 taking off. Tail number ZE700

What time did it take off from Heathrow, and could you post the URL please?

[ThisIsBigAl]

Not sure but flights in/out stopped at 9:18 Bae 146 took off from Northolt 9:21 filights from Heathrow started again at 9:23.
Have a look here https://webtrak.emsbk.com/lhr4

[ThisIsBigAl]

Just followed it on WebTrak it went north to Princes Risborough then turned South East down over Worthing then i lost it but i dont think its heading for Canada...

[Mike]

That site looks terrible !

Inbound flights stopped long before 09.18, please refer to my previous post :- "I've no idea what the cause was but it stopped landing traffic at Heathrow from 09.04 until 09.33 on 27L, there were very few take-offs from 27R during that time and then they used both runways for landings until 10.31 to catch up (27R was used for both departures and arrivals from 09.33 to 10.31). Something very strange has happened here!"

[ThisIsBigAl]

An RAF spokesman said: "The RAF can confirm that a flight was completed this morning by one of our assets from RAF Northolt.
This flight was coordinated with Heathrow ATC but had to extend by a few minutes to complete its sortie. The minor delays caused to civilian air traffic are regretted."

[Mike]

Do you have a link to that please?

[ThisIsBigAl]

https://news.sky.com/story/heathrow-del ... e-11910712

[big john]

Unsure of type, probably a Navajo, but its callsign was something like Mermaid 07 and a priority flight looking for something South of Heathrow and close to the approach. He was at 3000ft and refused to change altitude. He later wished to return to his first location but Heathrow ATC refused permission so he aborted the mission and returned to Northolt, saying he was going home and have think and maybe try again later.
Now I hope I don't get a knock on the door from a big red key for talking about them.

[CHINOOKER]

The Islander,(s), that have been operating out of Northolt have been quite busy of late!. I assume it was one of these that probably had to extend its operation or position in order to complete it's tasking!. Wouldn't have thought a 146,(whoever was on board),would have delayed any traffic into/out of Heathrow as they leave Northolt on a "northwesterly" flight profile! Also traffic into Northolt,both military and civil,quite often cross Heathrow around fl6-80 when routing up from the south. These are controlled by Heathrow until north of the airport,where they are then handed onto Northolt ATC. My assumption was that it was an Islander operating to the west of LHR and both runways were "temporarily closed" to both departing traffic and landing traffic due possible go-arounds!

[slogen51]

It is a strange one? The islanders normally spiral up from Northolt to about FL100 - you can often see them high above the airport. Then of course you have the police helicopters that routinely inspect the perimeter of the airport - neither of these cause delays to inbound aircraft.

Seems odd to have an islander operating so low near the approach - it would normally be handled by the police helicopters. No mention of it on the Heathrow spotters group.

[stig999]

Some rumour HRH Prince Philip passed away and his body flown back into Northolt?

[WAP]

Not sure where the Prince Phillip rumors started but there are plans for Royal deaths etc and they are pretty public. If someone wanted to sneak a dead Royal back into the UK we probably wouldn't hear about it.

As above, this was not normal and I'm sure the powers that be are hoping this will get blown under the carpet quickly.

[Snoop 95]

As far as I know Sandringham (which is where he is) is still in the UK!!!! Norfolk has not declared UDI!

[WAP]

"As far as I know Sandringham (which is where he is) is still in the UK!!!! Norfolk has not declared UDI!"

You know what I meant! Unless you are watching Him waving through the windows at Sandringham Live on the News I wouldn't be so sure. There has been a particular NOTAM in place for Birkhall (one of the lesser known Royal properties and nicely out of the way) since early December

[Reach 392]

I definitely saw a sneaky Islander returning to Northolt before 1000 yesterday, probably RTB and coincides with the closure timings at Heathrow. Orbiting at a fairly low altitude near Surbiton which other posters have mentioned will inevitably cause issues at LHR. May not be related at all but Snapshot 01 (Sentinel) was also flying racetracks at FL400 over the capital at a similar time.

[Snoop 95]

"As far as I know Sandringham (which is where he is) is still in the UK!!!! Norfolk has not declared UDI!"

You know what I meant! Unless you are watching Him waving through the windows at Sandringham Live on the News I wouldn't be so sure. There has been a particular NOTAM in place for Birkhall (one of the lesser known Royal properties and nicely out of the way) since early December

Sorry. Couldn't resist!

[panta615]

Some rumour HRH Prince Philip passed away and his body flown back into Northolt?

I was told this rumour too. Made me laugh when I found out the person who passed on the news was a BA pilot in the know.

[Thunder]

The Birkhall NOTAM appears when Charles and Camilla are in residence there, which I believe they may currently be. If Philip was in Scotland he would be down the road at Balmoral.

[Unknown74]

Wouldn't have been surprised to hear it was Harry fleeing to Canada...….?