Civil Aviation Resources Network 2024-04-26 News: Since April, South China has continuously encountered strong convection and thunderstorms, especially in Guangdong, which has brought great trouble to civil aviation operations. For travelers, nothing worries more than the impact on their trip.
So, why do thunderstorms have such a big impact on flight operations, and will there be compensation for the resulting flight delays?
Why thunderstorms have a huge impact on flight operations
Flying in thunderstorms often encounters problems such as delays and cancellations, for which many passengers will open the "delay 3,000 questions" mode, and even have the excesses of "bombing" the service desk, such as why the flight can't fly, why others have flown and we can't fly, etc. For these problems, let's do a science popularization one by one.
01Why can't I fly during a thunderstorm?
Thunderstorm is a violent weather phenomenon produced by the air under extremely unstable conditions, often accompanied by thunder and lightning, strong winds, heavy precipitation, wind shear, strong turbulence and other weather, which affects flights and airport operations.
For example, lightning may damage the airplane's body, affect the normal operation of radio communication and cockpit electronics in flight, and then affect the positioning and navigation of the aircraft; strong winds and heavy precipitation may cause a sudden drop in visibility, which is lower than the operating standard, and if it occurs during the landing phase, it will cause the aircraft to land unstable, and may even cause deviation from the runway; and the unstable air flow generated by the thunderstorm will cause low-altitude wind shear and affect flight control.
There are some supercooled water droplets in the thunderstorm cloud body, the temperature has reached zero degrees, but it has not yet frozen, as long as it is subject to a little disturbance or vibration, it will quickly freeze, change from the water phase to the ice phase, and form ice and even hail, especially the front of the wing and the front of the nose of the aircraft are relatively easy to form ice, affecting the aircraft control.
02 The sky is clear outside, why can't the flight take off due to "weather reasons"?
In fact, whether an aircraft can take off or not is determined by a series of factors, in terms of meteorological conditions alone, not only the departure and destination must meet the conditions for flight take-off and landing, but the weather on the route also affects whether the aircraft can take off.
When the route is affected by thunderstorms and cannot be used normally, pilots usually adopt the way of detouring to avoid risks; if the detour application is not agreed or approved, the aircraft needs to return or divert landing; when the route weather is covered by a large area of thunderstorms and it is difficult to detour or the origin/destination airport is expected to be covered by thunderstorms for a long time, from a safety point of view, airlines will generally wait for the weather to improve before executing flights or even canceling flights.
03 The flights of XX Airlines have flown up, why can't we fly?
The models are different. Different aircraft types have different safety standards, and it is likely that under the same weather conditions, some models can fly, while others cannot.
There are differences in the specific safety standards set by each airline for the same aircraft type, and it is likely that the safety standards of Air A but not those of Air B will be met under the same weather conditions.
In addition, depending on the boarding situation of the flight, if you are suddenly able to arrange a take-off, you will most likely take off first if you are able to board the hospitable flight first.
04 The thunderstorms have stopped, why wait for "flow control"?
Another thing that is often heard when encountering flight delays is the reason – flow control. According to professional interpretation, aircraft flow control refers to the maintenance of safe traffic flow in the air by limiting the number of aircraft entering an air traffic control node per unit time.
Due to the limited space on the route, thunderstorms have caused a large backlog of flights, and the route cannot accommodate these aircraft, and the number of aircraft that can take off and land per hour on the airport runway is also limited, so the air traffic control department will carry out flow control.
When experiencing thunderstorms, air traffic control can ensure the safe passage of subsequent flights through countless telephone coordination and countless calculations, so the flow control is to provide more reliable safety for passengers.
05Since it is delayed, why do you often arrange for passengers to wait on the plane?
It is common for passengers to complain that airlines are waiting in the cabin of the aircraft rather than in the airport terminal, knowing that their flights are delayed.
Because the aircraft can only apply to enter the sequence of waiting for take-off if the door is closed. Before the flight takes off, the pilot has to go through the links of contacting the departure clearance seat, the ground station, and the control tower. Each link must meet the standard before the next one, and if the conditions are not met within the specified time, all must be returned and restarted.
It's not hard to explain why airlines always persuade passengers to board as soon as possible, because if a pilot is delayed because of a passenger, they have to give way to all the flights that are on time, and sometimes even a dozen planes behind to take off.
Flights delayed or cancelled due to weather Do airlines need to compensate
We often see that when a thunderstorm causes flight delays and cancellations, many passengers ask the airline for compensation, or even miss important activities due to the delay. In fact, there is no compensation in this case.