General Chat

Although it may be a bit late, can anyone work out details for a particular plane?

On Christmas Day at about 21:43, one was preparing to land at Gatwick. The tail fin was yellow with some sort of emblem in a dark colour. As I can't recall lights from the cabin portholes - could be wrong - cargo planes shouldn't be ruled out.

It's puzzling me as I didn't think anything flew into or around the UK on Christmas Day apart from long-hauls which took off on Christmas Eve.

Think you are wrong about flights as there are flights here from UK on Christmas Day, they are usually cheap and have known several people come here then. There may be reduced air traffic as it's not a popular time to fly with most.

New Year's eve is usually a cheap flight back to UK from here.

Det
Lots of planes landed on Christmas day at Gatwick.

Using site http://www.lhr-lgw.co.uk/
It would appear to be Monarch Airlines Airbus 321 G-ZBAM MON265C.

21:34 Arr EZY9006 G-EZPR A320-214 WL [7372] Easyjet
21:38 Arr BAW2709 G-DBCG A319-131 [2694] British Aw
21:40 Arr MON735 G-ZBAG A321-231 [2793] Monarch Al
21:43 Arr MON265C G-ZBAM A321-231 WL [6059] Monarch Al
21:49 Arr IBK2675 EI-FJZ B737-8JP WL [42082] Norwegian Air Intl
21:55 Arr AUI113 UR-PSR B737-8KV WL [38124] Ukraine Intl Al

Thanks everyone.

Is it possible to work out where the flight originated?

Use this DeT.

Tracks all aircraft in the world.


https://www.flightradar24.com/

Not entirely sure if that link helps in this instance, Mr Magoo, but thanks for listing it.
It shows the Monarch flight MON265C as having landed at 8:08 PM, not anywhere near the time we saw it.

IBK2675 (Norwegian Air) doesn't appear to be listed for 25 Dec...unless I'm doing something wrong?

DetEcTive

A Monarch airline plane from Barcelona landed at 9.45pm on the 25th

Could it be that one?

Sounds about right, Von. Strange that the flighttracker posted by Mr Magoo didn't show it. Perhaps I was entering the wrong flight number?

To be honest I use a different site and one that I'm used to using. I track my son's flights.
I can never get it to work with flight numbers either :-0 :-0 :-D :-D

There is this site which can replay the Gatwick scene at the relevant time.
http://flighttracking.casper.aero/lgw/

I had to edit my earlier post as I somehow typed Boeing 757 instead of Airbus 321.

There can be confusion between IATA codes (the ones passengers are used to seeing) and ICAO codes which are used by Air Traffic Control. Norwegian Air Shuttle may have a DY flight number as well as an IBK number (and sometimes an NAX flight number)

Apologies Det for my post of 28th Dec at 13:59. It appears that the times given there are not the arrival times at Gatwick. Possibly they are the times when the aircraft was transferred to UK Air Traffic Control.

The site has now added the entries giving actual times of arrival and the following flights seem relevant to your original query.

21:30 ZB737 GOZBL 321 36L Monarch (Callsign MON15RE from Malaga (LEMG AGP))
21:42 ZB1725 GZBAD 32B 12M Monarch (Callsign MON1725 from Tenerife South(GCTS TFS))
21:53 ZB285 GZBAE 32B 10M Monarch (Callsign MON285M from Lanzarotte (GCRR ACE))

These flights tie in with those observed if you use the tracker
http://flighttracking.casper.aero/lgw/
for the relevant period.

Thanks for the correction KenSE. It was definately on its final approach with nothing in front or behind it.

On that basis, it must have come from Tenerife.....or Barcelona! :-D

Whoops,
ZB1725 was from Lisbon (LPPT LIS)
ZB285 was from Tenerife South (GCTS TFS)

Is Santa back home yet?

Has he started making toys for next CHRISTMAS? :-0

No JoyLouise. He's having a well earned break in Tenerife, Barcelona...or Lisbon :-D

Who'd have thought it would have been so awkward to work out where that plane came from? Thanks again Ken, but don't lose any sleep over it. :-)

The nearest Barcelona flight ZB275 landed at 21:19 and reached the terminal at 21:25. Possibly 21:45 was the time the baggage was available.