Jumbo jet over Nottingham?

August 11, 2006 9:09 AM

Confused about seeing a 747 over Nottingham

I was driving back from London today, and just as I was getting into the outskirts of Nottingham I saw a Virgin Atlantic 747 going quite low and slow, as if it was taking off/landing at Nottingham East Midlands Airport.

I've never seen a jumbo in this part of the world, and thought the airport couldn't handle planes of this size... anyone know what was going on? BBC news doesn't mention it.

posted by derbs to travel & transportation (10 comments total)

Don't know about the 747 part of your question, but Virgin does fly from Nottingham EM Airport. See the NEMA website airlines page.
posted by matthewr at 9:16 AM on August 11, 2006

Plus I wouldn't be surprised if there were re-routed planes following the debacle yesterday.
posted by Kickstart70 at 9:18 AM on August 11, 2006

So anyone know if the runway can handle 747-sized planes now then?
posted by derbs at 9:22 AM on August 11, 2006

According to this, the primary runway is 9,491 ft long, which is PLENTY long for a 747.
posted by deadmessenger at 9:42 AM on August 11, 2006

From what I can find in terms of the 747's required runway length (from here and a couple of sources for the length of the runway (which, according to Wikipedia, was lengthened sometime after 1993), it's certainly possible 747 to make it up from there (and land, which generally requires less runway), unless it's at its maximum takeoff weight.
posted by Godbert at 9:44 AM on August 11, 2006

I seem to recall seeing similar sized planes when I was in Nottingham though they may have been for cargo as I think there's a big cargo operation at the airport.
posted by patricio at 9:48 AM on August 11, 2006

besides length, size matters. THe runway has to be long enough and be built strong and thick enough to handle the weight. Sometimes runways are plenty long, but not plenty strong.

Perhaps because of yesterday's problems, they made an exception and landed one or two even though the it was overweight.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:16 AM on August 11, 2006

747s at EMA don't seem to be that rare. Virgin seem to operate A340s from EMA which are almost as big as 747s and it's possible you confused them, or they were using alternate equipment.
posted by cillit bang at 10:17 AM on August 11, 2006

Perhaps because of yesterday's problems, they made an exception and landed one or two even though the it was overweight.

Yeah. There are runways on which you don't want to land a heavy *often*, and ones on which you *just can't do it at all*.
posted by baylink at 11:03 AM on August 11, 2006

Virgin do seem to use EMA for Training Purposes.
posted by jontyjago at 2:00 PM on August 11, 2006