Plane comes off Bristol Airport runway after landing

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

The front was down while the plane's rear was up.

That's a quote from a passenger, describing their position 'after the dust had settled', so to speak - rather than the original moment of contact between the aircraft and the runway. 

[JayMac]

"Runway excursion incident"

Well done to the airline for stating the bleedin' obvious.

Now, what would cause such a deviation from the centre line?

[Western Pathfinder]

Tyres being punctured or blow out upon landing?.

[TonyK]

Choose from those, or asymmetric flaps, or thrust reverser issues, or failed aileron, or badly worn brakes, or a seized bearing, or a bird strike, or an unstable final approach, or wind shear, or unbalanced fuel load, or cargo shifting, or...

Air incidents usually involve at least three elements. Without wanting to sound prejudicial, what fool built a runway on an embankment by a sea?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Possibly the same fool who built the runway at Gibraltar: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar_International_Airport#Accidents_and_incidents 

[martyjon]

How about Funchal, bit like landing on an aircraft carrier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristiano_Ronaldo_International_Airport

[Thatcham Crossing]

Although the runway locations are geographically less than ideal at both Funchal and Gib, it's the winds (caused by that geography) that create most of the issues. Plenty of YouTube evidence of interesting approaches, go-arounds, less than smooth landings etc.

The terrain also means that precision approaches (eg, following ILS^▸ (Instrument Landing System) radio beams to the threshold) are not possible, so manually flown, visual approaches are the order of the day. The associated increased minima (which in effect means that the pilots need to be able to see the runway from further out/higher up) mean diversions are more likely in bad weather.

This is not the case at Bristol (which has ILS at both ends of the runway), but it is an airport in a less than ideal location, on top of a hill - which means it's generally windier and it's in the clouds more often when the cloudbase is low. The geography also limits infrastructure development, such as extending the runway, which would be difficult and expensive at Bristol.

In England, Luton and Leeds-Bradford Airports have similar location issues, so it's not on it's own.

[eXPassenger]

How about Funchal, bit like landing on an aircraft carrier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristiano_Ronaldo_International_Airport

Funchal may be considered short now, but it was even shorter when we visited in around 1979.  We were on the left of the plane and the cockpit door was open.  It looked as though we were flying straight at the mountain; when we did a 90 left, a hard landing and stopped close to the sea at the other end.  It is the only plane I have been on which had spontaneous clapping when we stopped.

Returning to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) they could only fuel the plane to Lisbon in order to reduce take off weight.

[Thatcham Crossing]

The approaches at Funchal are still the same, but the runway is now by no means short, at just over 9000ft. It can accept widebody aircraft and 747's have been there on a few occasions.

It was short until the portion on concrete stilts was built, a fuel uplift would usually be needed at nearby Porto Santo for flights back to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), for example. Porto Santo is also a regular diversion point when the Funchal weather precludes visual approaches or the wind is out of limits.

Gibraltar is short'ish at around 6000ft, and Airbus 320's are about the largest commercial aircraft that regularly visit on scheduled flights. RAF^▸ (Royal Air Force) C17's do visit occasionally, but they are an aircraft with a lot of power and performance for their size.

[TonyK]

I've been to both Funchal, where taking off can mean doing what you are told never to do, and Gibraltar, which is complicated by having to avoid Spanish airspace. Corfu is fun, too, with the pilot losing sight of the runway in parts of the circuit, before landing on a runway with a town at the end, rather than the more traditional golf course. I have the joy of landing a light aircraft at Ledbury, where the £5 landing fee goes in an honesty box, and the briefing includes going round if you see a double-deck bus approaching.

[CyclingSid]

A piece in The i newspaper had a regular flyer suggesting that you should make a will before flying to the new airport at St Helena:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena_Airport
Inspires confidence. Apparently still not operating jets from UK^▸ (United Kingdom), only smaller (turbo-props?) from South Africa.

[martyjon]

Wellington, NZ is an airport with a single NE-SW runway with water at both ends of the runway, Wellington Harbour and Bay at the North end and the Tasman Sea at the South end. Been in and out of there a few times on internal NZ flights but only once on an international flight, to Melbourne as the runway length excluded non-stop destinations beyond the SE and E coasts of Australia and nearer Pacific Island Groups. Most International Flights serve Auckland and Christchurch and I have traveled via both to onward destinations in the country.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_International_Airport

[Thatcham Crossing]

Apparently still not operating jets from UK^▸ (United Kingdom), only smaller (turbo-props?) from South Africa.

Correct, no jets from the UK, but Embraer 190 Regional Jets from South Africa on I think a weekly basis. The runway that could be built at St Helena is not really suitable for long-haul/widebody ops.

the runway length excluded non-stop destinations beyond the SE and E coasts of Australia

Singapore Airlines are now operating 777's into Wellington, but only on a double-drop schedule from Singapore and Canberra, due I suspect to payload/range limitations off Wellington's runway. It's also known as "windy Wellington" and there are some great Youtube clips of unstable approaches and go-arounds to prove it.