Strangely, there is no mention of this predicament in the following article that appeared in the Kelowna Daily Courier yesterday.
Good reporting; good media management!
I'll know in the next 3 hours or so whether I'm doing the midnight drive thru the Rockies for my sim session tomorrow morning, as the weather is currently 300 ft OVC. F***!!
http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/stori ... ?id=157879
Thick fog disrupts Kelowna air travel
Staff
2009-01-13
Thick fog led to 14 cancelled flights at Kelowna‘s airport on Monday, leaving passengers stranded.
The heavy cloud rolled onto the runway long before sunrise, forcing the pilot of a WestJet flight from Las Vegas to fly over at 4:45 a.m. The fog later lifted, allowing flights to arrive later than scheduled, but pockets of cloud descended on both ends of the runway field again by 11 a.m.
For the next four hours, most flights in and out of the airport were scrubbed. In all, seven inbound and seven outbound flights were cancelled.
It was the worst day for fog-related delays and cancellations that airport spokeswoman Jenelle Turpin has experienced in her 18 months on the job.
“The ceiling level was lower than what (pilots) needed to fly in and out for a good part of the day,” she said. “No one wants to see this happen. The airlines feel for the passengers.”
Pilots must see one mile in front of them and 251 feet of vertical visibility when arriving or taking off.
While the visibility on the runway was relatively good for much of the day Monday, they had trouble seeing through the fog banks at either ends of the field, Turpin said.
The pilots flew back to their point of origin or continued on to their next destination. The affected airlines – WestJet, Air Canada and charter airline Shell Canada Embraer – arranged to place passengers on the next available flights to Kelowna, Turpin said.
“Safety is the number-one issue. If the pilot . . . doesn‘t have the visibility and doesn‘t feel it‘s safe to land, it‘s their judgment call.”
The airlines rescheduled those unable to fly out of Kelowna.
“They will get to their location,” said Turpin.
Before a new instrument landing system was installed in 2003, fog and poor visibility led to scores of scrubbed flights because pilots relied mostly on their eyesight and instructions from the tower to land a plane.
On average, a hundred commercial flights a year were unable to land because of the weather.
Try spotting the misinformation...
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