I once landed at Gatwick where our gate was unavailable. Since there was another aircraft that had already landed behind us wanting its gate and we were blocking its course, they sent us on a looping tour around the taxiways (a full circle), by which time our gate was available!

This seems to happen all the time - you would think that checking they had sufficient clearance for tail & wingspan would be a relatively easy thing

Phoenix where I usually got stuck has an area painted like a big box, we called it the penalty box, planes went there while waiting for a gate.

My airline had literally enough gates just to handle the schedule, anything late or early, messed up things a good deal.

Sometimes in bad weather had to send them to Vegas to wait things out when space in Phoenix became an issue.

Its hard to tell from the front when towing just where the tail and wings are, at the airports i am familiar with we followed painted markings on the taxi ways that were supposed to keep wings from hitting things.

We only had narrow body planes, but when I was towing, I had nearly no view of the wing tip and the tail was not in sight at all, had to rely 100% on someone else or painted markings on the ground.

It is.
Those that know LHR, it's the large BA maintenance hanger on the left as you approach the southern runway (from the central terminal area, not T4) where Concorde is now parked. It's a leased area to BA meaning there are paint markings down but no guaranteed clearances. It's tight there for a 777. Basically, one of the guys should have jumped out of the tug to act as a wingman. Any other company, someone would probably be for the high jump. With BA's Union, it'll probably just be a slapped wrist.

Do you know if BA uses wing walkers on a regular basis? I know its pretty much the standard in the US with all airlines, but dunno about over sea's airlines.


This happened 14 years ago in Phoenix, I was working that day, but not involved in this. I was only ever involved in 1 air craft damage incident, but luckily not the one who caused the damage, just a witness, but those involved were fired. You would not keep your job if your negligence caused the damage.




This is the plane today, still in the fleet but with US Airways of course, not sure if it's going over to AA or finally being retired.



26 years old now.

Only when it's needed. As it was in the case of this 777 LOL. But then BA are a shower of brown stuff to be honest.
Although this still doesn't beat the British Midland incident we had. During the various nightly repostioning, a guy is towing his aircraft from I think maintainance to one of the stands. He's going at full pelt when the tow at breaks sending the plane trundling into the nearest grass area. The guy pulls on stand totally oblivious and call in parked to ATC. It was then when ARC look out the window to confirm that the give the guy his good news. Er, there is no plane behind you. LOL.

There is a story of a bored US AF pilot waiting to take off who wondered what would happen if he tried to raise the landing gear while on the ground. Wheels went up, fuselage met tarmac. Planes modified to prevent wheels-up when on the ground.

Allegedly.

No brake rider? We could not tow without a brake rider (usually a mechanic, but some ramp agents were also certified since maintenance wasn't around 24/7.) the brake rider did all the radio communication with ground, and then relayed it to the guy driving the push back, essentially to prevent the plane from moving if the tow bar did break or come loose, someone would be there to put on the planes brakes.

We used wing walkers for any aircraft movement on the ramp (obviously not on taxiways) 3 person minimum to bring in a plane or push one back, 4 was preferred for arrival so there was also a dedicated person to chock the plane.

Phoenix was was spacious to move planes around, no real congestion there, lots of room.

San Diego was pretty cramped, our gates were at the end of a semi-circle terminal, push back was backwards at an angle, then turn the plan completely around and back the tail into the gate where the nose had just been, all without hitting Delta or AA tails which we were surrounded by. We never did hit anyone, worst thing that ever happened on push back was tow bar shear pins breaking, loud, but no harm done.

757's were interesting as well, the plane stopped literally with maybe 4 feet of space between the terminal and nose.


United is rumored to be outsourcing 28 additional stations affecting 2,000 some employees.

Sad that its pretty much impossible unless a pilot or flight attendant to have any meaningful airline career in the US.

There would have been a brake rider in a movement with a tow bar. I dunno what he was doing. I'm guessing he was asleep. The guy in the tug would have been doing the RT though at LHR.
Wing walking seems to be a more American thing. If we were marshaling on an aircraft, a wide body was a 2 man job so one could watch the wings, but all narrow bodies were done with one marshaller.

Might just be a US/Canada thing as its done here too. Biggest reason is when marshaling it can be difficult to see the wings accurately, far easier to have someone at the wing tip watching.

My airline had no wide bodies, so didn't deal with those. Airport only got 1 scheduled WB at the time anyhow was British Airways, AA handled their ramp, but AA used wing walkers as well, they had like 20 people working that flight.

In Phoenix where my airline handled BA, had maybe 10 people for the flight including bag room, never bid the BA contract as it was a boring contract.

A couple of AA Pics, taken at O'Hare, in August 2012.


Jim.

It's quite ridiculous that after nigh on ten years living here, I haven't brought my camera down to the airport for some spotting. Where do you usually go? I hear there's a good spot around Higgins and Irving Park Road. The parking lot of the Allstate Arena on Mannheim has a great view of the runways, I might try and sneak down one of the side streets one day for a while.

I used to go Des Plaines Oasis, Eastbound, or Westbound. Haven't been there since they knocked it down, leaving only the Gas Station there.

There is a good view of incoming planes on 90. I suppose there are plenty of businesses in the Mannheim/Higgins/Irving Park Road area that I could park in and move along if the rent-a-cops hassle me.