From the Hammersmith & Fulham Chronicle
On a recent British Airways flight to Heathrow, I was surprised to see in the airline’s “High Life” magazine an interview with one of the pilots, where she said that “I always enjoy flying over London, because there are so few approaches over cities”. I wouldn’t want to deprive anyone of their enjoyment, but there is something quite significant in this statement. A very frequent flyer is here pointing out that planes normally land at airports (most of which are on the edge of cities, like ours is) by coming in over the countryside, not over the city itself.
Heathrow is in a very unusual location. Due to the prevailing westerly winds, planes need to fly in from the east, and thus over the city. Hence, why London suffers far more from aircraft noise than almost any other major city. Indeed, Nearly a third of the victims of aircraft noise in the whole of Europe live in the vicinity of Heathrow. But there is not only the issue of aircraft noise, we must also consider how safe it is for so many planes to fly directly over the centre of one of the world’s largest cities. Last month, a BA jet with one of its engines in flames was routed directly over Chelsea, Fulham and Hammersmith. Thankfully, the plane made it back to the airport and nobody was hurt, but it again begs the question: why do we fly more than 1,000 planes a day over central London?
All of these are factors which should be considered by the Davies Commission, which is currently looking at the whole issue of airport capacity in the South East, on behalf of the Government. I remain opposed to the expansion of Heathrow Airport. I would welcome the views of Chronicle readers on the future of Heathrow Airport. Please email me at mail@greghands.com or write to me at the House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.