Dassault Chief Test Pilot Says 5.5 glideslope makes jets land too fast at London City Airport

So now we even have an aircraft manufacturer stating that the 5.5degree glideslope (the degree of descent to approach the runway) at LCA would cause "most jet aircraft to arrive over the runway too fast to land".

A bit like the BAE146 flight on Friday 13th February perhaps, and the one a week before, and the ones prior to that too? But they do land, they just tend to burst tires or sustain nose wheel damage.

Dassault's chief test pilot Philippe Deleume goes on to say that " Flying into City requires precision and stability in the handling and speed of the aircraft". He also goes on to say that LCA is "one of the world's most challenging airports".

Perhaps Philippes' knowledge and experience could be shared with the CAA over LCA's suitability for large jet planes, London would be a safer place for it in our opinion.

So Dassault chief test pilot confirms what we already know from the incidents at LCA but which the CAA seem blind to for now, but for how long we wonder?

These comments were made as the Falcon 7x gets approval to operate from London City Airport.

Are LCA Dicing With The Communities Safety?

Residents have been reporting into us this morning of the appalling weather conditions and alarming attempts of flights to land and take off.

With strong cross winds around London City Airport's runway - 4 flights were forced to abort landing in just 30 minutes of observation. Planes were visibly struggling at some height before approaching the runway with the cross winds.

Some were just feet above the runway and were felt to be at risk of over running the runway by observers - before the aircraft had to abort the landing and struggle to gain height over the A117 Woolwich Manor Way, with landing gear still visible.

Observers felt that they were about to witness an incident on more than one occasion and questioned 'why were LCA still allowing flights to take off and land in such conditions, wouldn't it have been better to have re-routed them to another airport if landing was proving so difficult'? 'Who takes that decision to allow flights to continue to land and take off in such dangerous conditions - and who are they accountable to'? the resident asked us. We suspect there may have been some very startled drivers on that road this morning, as well as startled air passengers.

It reminds us that there are a lot of people in the close vicinity of LCA and the public safety zone, and they were alarmed and scared by these sights. It brings home the reality of the dangers to the community of the airports close proximity to such high density residential areas, and busy roads and the difficult weather conditions that are experienced in the area. The strong winds are even stated in planning documents for housing and developers are often required to plant trees to help create some protection from wind in the exposed areas of East and South East London's former marshlands. LCA's location is clearly not a suitable place to expand flights at all and with 50% more flights (100% more flights in their dreams) - especially on days like today, the risk is too high to the safety of the surrounding communities.

Coming Soon: Videos of this mornings aborted and alarming landings.