FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Strange arrival route into Heathrow last night
Old Dec 19, 2011 | 4:26 pm
  #5  
Scott Pilgrim
10 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 387
It's not unusual.

This sort of route usually happens when the sequence order is such that a number of aircraft are coming off the south stacks in a row.

There isn't a lot of room to play with airspace wise on the south side so traffic from the OCK stack can be routed over the final approach and then right hand downwind as you did to make life easier for the South Director.

There are other reasons, such as a short notice increase in track miles is needed following a missed approach taking place. Or perhaps when TEAM (using both runways for landing) is happening but mostly it's just for ease of getting a lot of aircraft through a small amount of airspace.
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