The weather at Gibraltar Airport changes rapidly and drastically from time to time. This is often why it's included in the "Top Ten Most Dangerous Airports in the World." Tuesday, October 4th 2022 was a weather ridden day for the Gibraltar Airport as three planes were diverted to Malaga. That accounts for 50% of the daily flight landings for that day.
On a typical day, the Gibraltar airport receives anywhere from 3-6 commercial flights. These flights come out of the United Kingdom. Currently the airport does not host any commercial flights from any other country except the UK.
On Tuesdays the airport receives flights from Bristol, Manchester, London Gatwick, London Heathrow and Edinburgh, a relatively new addition to the flight schedule. The Bristol and Edinburgh flights only come in twice per week.
This particular Tuesday October morning created the perfect conditions for a dense and thick fog to encapsulate The Rock and the airport. Gibraltar Airport has a very short runway, about 1,778 meters, or just over a mile long. Both ends of the runway are surrounded by water, with no ILS the pilots have to land by sight, creating a difficult landing when weather conditions are ideal. Add a thick, heavy fog to the mix and its a recipe for disaster.
The first three flights scheduled to land; Bristol, Manchester, and London Gatwick were all to come in between 9:50 and 11:00 AM. Those three flights had to be diverted to Malaga, the fog was still too heavy for any visual landing at the airport.
The second two flights, British Airways A320 from London Heathrow and easyJet's A20N from Edinburgh were scheduled to land at 11:05 AM and 11:35 AM respectively. Due to a delay, BA492 was coming in late and was flying behind EZY6933 (Edinburgh flight).
At the beach on the eastern shore of La Linea, I watched the fog as it slowly dissipated out over the sea only minutes before the Edinburgh flight was coming in for landing. The wind was also changing direction ever so slightly, so I wasn't sure which end of the runway the planes would be coming in. All too often, I've been at one end of the runway and the wind shifts directions, therefore, the planes shift which end they land or depart. Today I got lucky and the wind was in my favor where I was lined up to see the planes coming in. I got even more lucky as the planes then departed the same end of the runway as I was at.
The Edinburgh flight came in and landed in a thick fog. BA492 was in a holding pattern until EZY6933 landed and taxied to the terminal. With only one landing strip, only one plane can land at a time. Once Edinburgh landed, in came BA492 with even more clear conditions.
At this time, I also noted on FlightRadar24 that the Bristol flight in Malaga as well as the Manchester flight had just departed that airport en route to Gibraltar. Minutes later the London Gatwick flight departed for Gib as well.
Three flights diverted to Malaga is a logistical nightmare for the airports, the airlines, the crew and the passengers. If the planes can't make it to Gibraltar, the passengers have to be brought down by busses to the Gibraltar Airport. And those waiting at GIB have to be bussed up to Malaga for departure. Not a fun story for anyone.
Luckily, the fog cleared for only one hour and these three diverted flights were able to fly from Malaga and land at Gibraltar. I have all 5 landing and departing on film on my YouTube Channel Ministry of Flight.
All of these flights were literally on the ground at Gibraltar for 50 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes, a typical turn around time for these planes at Gibraltar. I've seen flights turn around in as little as 40 minutes. So today, like any other, the flights held their own with deplaning, cleaning and reloading with fuel, luggage and passengers.
In the end, the three diverted flights were able to land safely at Gibraltar. British Airways and easyJet, Gibraltar Airports only current commercial airline carriers, did a superb job with the landing and departing conditions provided.
The fog was only out for about an hour and by the time the Bristol flight and London Gatwick flights departed they were flying into a wall of pure fog. It was quite fascinating to behold.
Gibraltar has several factors weighing it in as one of the world's top ten most dangerous airports, and the fog on 4 October 2022, proved to be one of those factors.
Be sure to check out MeteoGib on twitter and facebook for weather at Gibraltar, they are my reliable resource for when I'm out watching the planes at Gibraltar. Make sure to check out Ministry of Flight and THE SPAIN GIBRALTAR CHANNEL on YouTube for awesome videos of planes, and things to do and know for travel to Spain and Gibraltar. Check out a list of plane videos and description here: Ministry of Flight website page
Full 4K Videos of that days flights below:
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