Traveling from New York to Florida?
Posted By admin on May 23, 2011
paul s asked:
I have taken many flights from New York to Florida mostly from Islip to Ft. Lauderdale. One of the things that I could never understand when the plane (it doesnt matter if its Southwest, Delta or Spirit Airlines) is landing at the Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood airport instead of just landing at the airport for some reason it always goes out to the everglades first and then turns around to land at the airport. You are in the air in some cases an extra 15 to 30 minutes. I understand that this might be the route but why cant the plane just go over the beach and land at the airport. Would appreciate the answer from an experienced pilot.
I have taken many flights from New York to Florida mostly from Islip to Ft. Lauderdale. One of the things that I could never understand when the plane (it doesnt matter if its Southwest, Delta or Spirit Airlines) is landing at the Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood airport instead of just landing at the airport for some reason it always goes out to the everglades first and then turns around to land at the airport. You are in the air in some cases an extra 15 to 30 minutes. I understand that this might be the route but why cant the plane just go over the beach and land at the airport. Would appreciate the answer from an experienced pilot.
Usually to do with the wind, aircraft have to land into the wind so that may me ehy they have to go around the airport and land in that direction
There might be a noise abatement ordinance in effect as well over the beach area
It is the published approach procedure that was filed… it was probobly done because of noice abatement or more likely, the winds… when an airplane lands into the wind, it can travel at a slower ground speed and thus puts less stress on the brakes and allows for softer touchdowns… Many cities have laws against flying low over the beaches, or residential areas except in emergencies…
Air traffic is diverted away from populated areas as much as possible, noise, tourist ect. Also, sometimes the plane will have to, get in line or kill some time in order to not interfear with other air traffic. I know those extra few minutes **** but it’s better than drivin’.
The arrival path and landing direction will depend on the filed flight plan and the runway in use. The main runways are east bound (09) and westbound (27) and it is one strip of concrete that makes up both runways in each direction.
Southwests filed flight plan from ISP to FLL is BEADS EMJAY J174 SWL CEBEE WETRO ILM AR21 CRANS FISEL2. That flight plan routing ends with the flight proceeding to the CRANS intersection and then flying the FISEL2 arrival routing, (as does Spirits) which is a published arrival procedure into FLL airport. You can see it here- and even though the beach isn’t shown, you can see the airport and visualize it.
The FISEL2 pretty much sets the aircraft up for a straight in landing, over the beach, to the west on rwy 27. You say you flew out over the everglades and back each time landing to the east. So, since they didn’t land on the main runway to the west, it would seem those times you were there the runway in use was rwy 9, the eastern landing runway.
This would mean that the winds were blowing onshore and to land into the wind, the aircraft would have to turn around and land on the runway into the wind heading east. The flight would then cross the beach, head westbound and either be vectored for an instrument approach rwy 9 in bad weather or do a visual approach (runway in sight) landing to the east on rwy 9.
You could ask this question at the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Airport if you’ve been through this so often. Here is a question for you. You have mentioned three different airlines all use the same approach. It tends to show there are safety features they are following as a groups of airlines tend to stay within the stated guidelines of the FAA. If any of these flights ever deviates, you would notice wouldn’t you.
There is a reason for doing this, and someone at the airport is probably the best source for your answer and satisfaction.
(Also, Florida has so many natural disasters, can you imagine allowing flights over populated beaches as a normal procedure?) There was the ValuJet crash years ago, in the Florida swamps or marshes, I can’t recall the exact location. They have become very careful since this. Maybe this has some influence on the extra fifteen to twenty minutes. There is a reason for everything.