It’s not uncommon for airports to have curfews, and generally speaking, they’re strictly enforced. This is especially common in Germany, where Ryanair has frequently lashed out at regulators for enforcing curfews.
Well, here’s an interesting version of curfew enforcement, whereby a jet approached a German airport a little too early, and it resulted in a lot more noise than if it had just landed.
ANA jet approaches Frankfurt seconds before curfew lifts
Pilot Ori Gross writes on LinkedIn about an incident he personally witnessed, while piloting another flight (and it’s confirmed by flight tracking software). Specifically, this involves All Nippon Airways’ Boeing 787-9 flight from Tokyo Haneda (HND) to Frankfurt (FRA), NH203, which is scheduled to depart at 9:40PM and arriving at 5:20AM the following day.
This incident involves the flight that departed on July 2, arriving on July 3. Japanese airlines of course place a big emphasis on punctuality, so the flight departs and arrives on scheduled more or less every day. On this particular flight, the flight time was a few minutes shorter than average.
Frankfurt Airport has a night ban that goes until 5AM, and ordinarily, the flight lands just shortly after that. On this particular flight, the aircraft was approaching Frankfurt seconds early. Specifically, the plane was approaching the airport and descended all the way down to 400 feet.
At 4:59:42AM, 18 seconds before 5AM, the air tower controller gave the pilots of the Dreamliner the instructions to perform a go around. The pilots followed the instructions, but seemingly weren’t aware of the reason. So the tower controller explained — the plane would’ve landed seconds before the night curfew would’ve technically been lifted, and you know, the rules are the rules.
So the plane ended up doing an additional pattern around the airport, and ended up landing roughly 16 minutes later, at 5:15AM.
Should there be more flexibility with airport curfews?
When you see situations like this, you can’t help but wonder if curfews are actually serving their intended purpose. The intent of curfews is to avoid the noise of aircraft near airports, for the benefits of residents in the area.
You know what causes more noise than a plane landing at 4:59:42AM? A plane performing a low altitude go around at 4:59:42AM. So in the end, people in the area were subjected to more noise than they would’ve otherwise been, simply because that’s what the rules state. That says nothing of the increased emissions.
In hindsight, one certainly thinks that the ANA jet should’ve been slowed down a bit more than it was on approach, or should’ve maybe been given a longer approach course, to prevent this exact situation. After all, controllers are the ones giving instructions, and who must have these curfew restrictions top of mind.
At the same time, I’m not sure what exactly the solution is. In this particular case, I think the way this played out is really dumb. Then again, how much of a grace period should there be? Because no matter what grace period you pick, you know planes will keep pushing up against that.
For example, Ryanair was angry about a recent forced diversion in Germany, where the company claimed the flight arrived seven minutes late. The catch is that the plane arrived seven minutes after the 30-minute grace period that’s offered for delays.
No matter where you draw the line, there are always going to be situations where flights just barely miss the curfew, and various parties aren’t happy about it.
Bottom line
An All Nippon Airways Boeing 787-9 was forced to perform a go around in Frankfurt, as it approached seconds before 5AM, when the night ban on flights is lifted. I understand the point of curfews, but having an aircraft perform a go around at a low altitude generates a lot more noise (and pollution) for the local area than just letting the plane land. I’m not sure what the solution is (other than just eliminating curfews), but…
What do you make of this ANA 787 go around in Frankfurt?
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