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Flight deemed unsuitable by Air Traffic Control

Flight deemed unsuitable by Air Traffic Control

Old Feb 20, 2017, 9:54 pm
  #1  
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Flight deemed unsuitable by Air Traffic Control

My relative's flight was deemed unsuitable by Air Traffic Control although it eventually departed. Does anyone have any insight to this?
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 9:58 pm
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Originally Posted by Arginine
My relative's flight was deemed unsuitable by Air Traffic Control ....
"unsuitable" -- have never heard that term in these circumstances. Can you provide more explanation?
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 10:10 pm
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
"unsuitable" -- have never heard that term in these circumstances. Can you provide more explanation?
The airline said once a flight is deemed unsuitable by Air Traffic Control there's nothing the airline can do about it. They told me they couldn't give me an answer as to why it happened, which could mean they knew and couldn't tell me or that they didn't know either. The plane was held for just over five hours, which I thought was weather related, but was corrected by the airline when I inquired.

Last edited by Arginine; Feb 20, 2017 at 10:14 pm Reason: I corrected the amount of time the plane was held.
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 10:20 pm
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Could you provide the date and flight # / routing?

I've never heard "unsuitable" used in regards to Air Traffic Control.
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 10:21 pm
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Sounds like a bad translation for ATC flow delays.
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 10:24 pm
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Originally Posted by laxmillenial
could you provide the date and flight # / routing?

I've never heard "unsuitable" used in regards to air traffic control.
02/20/17, UAL 1840*, phx-sfo

*codeshare
(AC) Air Canada 5787
(CM) Copa Airlines 1782
(LX) SWISS 3271
(NZ) Air New Zealand 9794
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 10:30 pm
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Many flights to SFO today were delayed due to weather conditions at SFO. Perhaps someone twisted that into the weather conditions were "unsuitable" for flights. Today's SFO conditions can cause SFO to be reduced to one active runway and many flights need to be cancelled due to the reduced landing capacity -- ATC restricts the number of flight arrivals / departures at these times.
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 10:41 pm
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Today's SFO conditions can cause SFO to be reduced to one active runway and many flights need to be cancelled due to the reduced landing capacity -- ATC restricts the number of flight arrivals / departures at these times.
More than 100 flights cancelled at SFO today.

Flew in around 5 pm from EWR, visibility was just terrible . . . couldn't see anything but cloud until we were within a couple hundred feet of the bay.
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 11:11 pm
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Not a lot of info but this usually just means that the flight was held waiting for an arrival slot to be assigned at SFO. This is quite common during any kind of cloudy or foggy weather when they institute a traffic management program:

Code:
1840/20FEB
P PHX/OUT    921P  L04.56  ☨
P PHX/OFF    933P
P SFO/ETA   1032P  L05.00  AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL
D CRC/SFO/ POSS DLYS/CNCL DUE TO STRONG WINDS-RAIN
D HDQ/PHX SFO PROT UNDER GG CN2 T66
    
SKED  PHX  ORIG    425P              GTD   6B SHIP 3446
      SFO   532P  TERM      GTA   90
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Old Feb 20, 2017, 11:18 pm
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Cool

Originally Posted by Arginine
02/20/17, UAL 1840*, phx-sfo

*codeshare
(AC) Air Canada 5787
(CM) Copa Airlines 1782
(LX) SWISS 3271
(NZ) Air New Zealand 9794
Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Many flights to SFO today were delayed due to weather conditions at SFO. Perhaps someone twisted that into the weather conditions were "unsuitable" for flights. Today's SFO conditions can cause SFO to be reduced to one active runway and many flights need to be cancelled due to the reduced landing capacity -- ATC restricts the number of flight arrivals / departures at these times.


It was raining cats and dogs today, especially this evening. I'm sure it was an ATC/weather delay.
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Old Feb 21, 2017, 12:56 am
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Definitely sounds like something badly translated - I have heard "unsuitable" used by ATC in France - I assumed they meant "unable"
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Old Feb 21, 2017, 5:34 am
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The delay isnt caused by ATC. It is caused by the weather...
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Old Feb 21, 2017, 8:13 am
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Originally Posted by FlightCancelled
The delay isnt caused by ATC. It is caused by the weather...
That is a very odd statement. The delay is directly attributable to FAA's air traffic management program, which limits landing slots at SFO during low visibility periods and thus requires that a certain number of inbound flights be held on the ground (or cancelled). ATC is thus the direct cause of the delay.
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Old Feb 21, 2017, 8:15 am
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That's a little bit of a flip in attribution. The ATC traffic management program only comes into play when there is a weather reason, so the weather is still the root cause of it and ATC is not to "blame". In fact, their actions mitigate the effects of weather related disruptions. What would planes be doing if the traffic management program weren't in place? Circling for hours?
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Old Feb 21, 2017, 8:21 am
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Originally Posted by TA
That's a little bit of a flip in attribution. The ATC traffic management program only comes into play when there is a weather reason, so the weather is still the root cause of it and ATC is not to "blame". In fact, their actions mitigate the effects of weather related disruptions.
ATC is a "cause" of the delay both under the standard English and legal definitions of that word.

"Cause" does not incorporate a fault requirement.
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