Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,994
Originally Posted by
bubbah
Hi we flew LGW to Dubrovnik yesterday BA2678 and should have arrived at 11.45. We were then told that because of low cloud and the fact that Dubrovnik airport were undergoing work the equipment that helps landing in those situations was not working. The pilot was then left in a holding pattern for over 40 minutes in case the cloud lifted he said he had enough fuel, good. Then he said we would be going to land at Split.. On arrival at Split we were then transported to Dubrovnik by coach and arrived at Dubrovnik after 6pm.
...
I know weather can be an issue when trying for EU261 but this was down to a piece of equipment. The pilot and CSD told us this. Would we have a claim. We had arrived at our destination although not the airport as the coach driver dropped us off at the bus station, it was 5 hours 15 minutes and would have been 6 hours if we had gone back to the airport. Thank you
Dubrovnik airport has two possible runways, 12 and 30. Only 12 is equipped with any ILS system, 30 only has non-precision approaches available. The ILS on runway 12 is CAT1 only which means it is not possible to do an autoland on that runway and land in near-zero visibility.
Looking at the weather at Dubrovnik airport yesterday it does seem there was quite a bit of low cloud from 300ft upwards around the time you were due in. The wind was coming from the south east yesterday morning so the preferred runway would have been 12. The low cloud wouldn't have been too much of a problem for a CAT1 ILS approach on runway 12 as you would have probably broken out of the low cloud in time to see the runway. However, I note that according to some aviation databases the ILS on runway 12 is out of service at the moment. This means that much higher levels of visibility are required. Depending on which other approach type was selected they would have needed to be able to see the ground or approach lights no lower than 800ft at best (some of the other approaches require even higher levels).
I am afraid it seems this is a combination of poor weather and airport equipment out of service which means it is unlikely BA would compensate you for something outside their control.
Last edited by KARFA; Mar 13, 2018 at 4:53 am
Reason: spelling