As you may have seen on the news, Istanbul is being hit by a massive blizzard this week.
Typically when a hub city is hit by a major weather event it causes major problems for the local airline, which has certainly been the case here. Turkish Airlines has had to delay or outright cancel hundreds of flights, and by all accounts operations at Istanbul airports are just a mess.
More concerning than the delays, however, is this clip which was shared on Twitter this morning:
Turkish Airlines' high tech de-icing method. pic.twitter.com/7oMlt71kvK
— UgurP (@U_G_U_R_P) January 10, 2017
I have no words…
Hopefully someone from the airport or Turkish will be able to clarify that this is not, in fact, an acceptable deicing procedure. I understand desperate times calling for desperate measures, but oy — this is not a good idea.
So I generally wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Turkish (I flew them twice last week myself, and had a great experience), but if you’re scheduled to fly them in the coming days you might want to make other arrangements.
Views from my Turkish flight last week
What do you guys think? Anyone seen something like this before?
OK, I'll try this comment again, without a URL this time. To see the multi-decade temperature chart will only involve googling the title of the post I tried to link to, which I'll include further down this comment.
Dear climate alarmists: Yes, indeed, some 20 or so years ago it was confidently predicted by the Global Warming establishment that by now children 10 years or younger living in New England would have never experienced...
OK, I'll try this comment again, without a URL this time. To see the multi-decade temperature chart will only involve googling the title of the post I tried to link to, which I'll include further down this comment.
Dear climate alarmists: Yes, indeed, some 20 or so years ago it was confidently predicted by the Global Warming establishment that by now children 10 years or younger living in New England would have never experienced snow in their lives. Well on Jan 6 of this year every state in the US except Florida had subfreezing temperatures, and the New England area was hit by a snow storm of "historic proportions".
Despite increasing levels of CO2 emissions over the past several decades, the other unquestioned predictions by Global Warming models have also totally failed to occur. For instance the US was predicted to be hit by 5, 6, or even more Super Hurricanes like Katrina on a yearly basis. Instead the US mainland hasn't be hit by an actual Hurricane in 10 years. The Arctic that was supposed to be totally ice free every Summer hasn't been anywhere near ice free even once.
Most telling is that despite the increased levels of CO2, there has been no warming over the past several decades at all. Sure, due to the occasional El Nino, and the Urban Heat Island effect, local temperatures are up from time to time. But I invite any of you to look at the temperature readings for the Lower Troposphere, as measured by satellites and weather balloons, and show where there has been any warming at all since the 80s:
Google: "Earth cooling at the fastest rate on record"
For everyone who NOW wants to claim that Global Warming causes colder winters and more snow, that's not at all what the Climate models that predicted Global Warming originally said. This is from GeoEnginerring Watch dated March 20, 2000:
(Google this title): "Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past"
"However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David...
For everyone who NOW wants to claim that Global Warming causes colder winters and more snow, that's not at all what the Climate models that predicted Global Warming originally said. This is from GeoEnginerring Watch dated March 20, 2000:
(Google this title): "Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past"
"However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.
The effects of snow-free winter in Britain are already becoming apparent. This year, for the first time ever, Hamleys, Britain’s biggest toyshop, had no sledges on display in its Regent Street store. “It was a bit of a first,” a spokesperson said."
@ Ryan Well, I did reply, using facts and logic, before my "ad hominem" comment, and that first comment didn't post for some unknown reason. I assumed it was being held for approval since I included a URL to a chart of satellite and weather balloon temperature readings, but now half a day later it still hasn't shown up. I'll try it again below...
And I stand by my comment that "right wing BS" is indeed an ad hominem slur with no value in terms of facts or logic. ;)
@Owen S
A self-claimed billionaire is '...a man of the people...'? What have you been ingesting?
@Eric W "global warming doesn’t mean it’ll never snow again. It means that the planet’s average temperature is slowly, inexorably increasing to unprecedented levels as a result of carb"
Sorry, Eric. You and your global elitist friends are just going to have to go back to Davos and cry in your wine. We've seen through your Red Chinese cuckspiracy of global warming. Now that a man of the people is president and not so easily...
@Eric W "global warming doesn’t mean it’ll never snow again. It means that the planet’s average temperature is slowly, inexorably increasing to unprecedented levels as a result of carb"
Sorry, Eric. You and your global elitist friends are just going to have to go back to Davos and cry in your wine. We've seen through your Red Chinese cuckspiracy of global warming. Now that a man of the people is president and not so easily fooled by conspiracy theories, nobody is going to fall for that climate change nonsense ever again.
@Eric W "global warming doesn’t mean it’ll never snow again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B79lRdgKG54
Spoiler: video is from 2013
@Robert Hanson You're clearly not that sharp because you clearly read and didn't reply (or maybe just didn't understand?) everything written by other commenters debunking your nonsense drivel coming from a clear lack of understanding of basic facts. Crying "ad hominem" doesn't mean you won the argument, it more often means that you acted like a fool long enough for people using actual logic and facts to get frustrated with arguing with you. It's an...
@Robert Hanson You're clearly not that sharp because you clearly read and didn't reply (or maybe just didn't understand?) everything written by other commenters debunking your nonsense drivel coming from a clear lack of understanding of basic facts. Crying "ad hominem" doesn't mean you won the argument, it more often means that you acted like a fool long enough for people using actual logic and facts to get frustrated with arguing with you. It's an ad hominem attack on your critical thinking skills very well deserved!
It doesn’t look good, but I wouldn’t conclude that it is unsafe. A proper visual inspection is probably the most important check for ice, so lets try to see the little fluid they added as a bonus. The problem is obviously that THY dosen’t have the right equipment for applying the deicing fluids in Istanbul, and they probably never needed it before. Now, desperately trying to get as many aircrafts going as possible!
And while...
It doesn’t look good, but I wouldn’t conclude that it is unsafe. A proper visual inspection is probably the most important check for ice, so lets try to see the little fluid they added as a bonus. The problem is obviously that THY dosen’t have the right equipment for applying the deicing fluids in Istanbul, and they probably never needed it before. Now, desperately trying to get as many aircrafts going as possible!
And while it is snowing in Istanbul it is raining in Oslo. All the snow is gone, and it feels like it’s autumn again... That must be a first for January. Let’s hope the weather in Bahamas remains stable. I need it. Happy flying :)
@Adam I'm sharp enough to know the meaning of 'Ad hominem'... ;)
Robert Hanson is always on here spewing his right wing BS. He clearly is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
@Robert Hanson,
The ever increasingly militant tree huggers, have changed the name of their environmental crises to "Climate Change". They can't seem to ever explain why the exact opposite seems to happen for years after they declare some kind of climate emergency... In the early 80's it was the coming ice age, and we were are all going to freeze to death - "...the planet’s average temperature is slowly, inexorably decreasing to unprecedented levels...
@Robert Hanson,
The ever increasingly militant tree huggers, have changed the name of their environmental crises to "Climate Change". They can't seem to ever explain why the exact opposite seems to happen for years after they declare some kind of climate emergency... In the early 80's it was the coming ice age, and we were are all going to freeze to death - "...the planet’s average temperature is slowly, inexorably decreasing to unprecedented levels as a result of ..."
Now, back to my glass of 2004 Salon in first on my flight to HND...
Of course that should have been "not only does global warming NOT necessarily mean that it won't snow again..." Too many negatives for one little sentence!
To add to what Eric W. wrote: not only does global warming necessarily mean that it won't snow again, but it also means the the climate is changing - and sometimes those changesresult in more cold or snow in some regions, despite the overall increase in average worldwide atmospheric temperatures.
@Eric W.
You get an A for effort, but sadly there are many Americans who don't understand science and are quick to spout what they're told to by Koch Industries and big oil, so they are denialists.
Some Americans think humans roamed the earth with dinosaurs.
Very sad/embarrassing when chatting with friends and colleagues abroad. And nobody understands how a clown was elected president and why he and his cabinet are allowed so many pure conflicts of interest.
Robert Hanson wrote: "Global Warming strikes again."
Was this satire intended to mimic climate deniers? If not -- or in case anyone else misunderstands you! -- global warming doesn't mean it'll never snow again. ;) It means that the planet's average temperature is slowly, inexorably increasing to unprecedented levels as a result of carbon released into the upper atmosphere that traps heat further down. We'll still get plenty of snowstorms, and they may even be...
Robert Hanson wrote: "Global Warming strikes again."
Was this satire intended to mimic climate deniers? If not -- or in case anyone else misunderstands you! -- global warming doesn't mean it'll never snow again. ;) It means that the planet's average temperature is slowly, inexorably increasing to unprecedented levels as a result of carbon released into the upper atmosphere that traps heat further down. We'll still get plenty of snowstorms, and they may even be more intense and unpredictable than before. But it doesn't lessen the threat.
We've all seen how much liquid is sprayed on a plane to deice it...the weather will have warmed by the time these two get finished...
I think they got the wrong page from the manual. This is clearly the iceing procedure.
Actually before I looked at the picture I was imagining a guy with a flamethrower.
@Robert Hanson
It would be a blast to have ski resorts here in Brazil. But what's happening here is that the weather is getting hotter in general. We used to have a good winter month with temperatures around 15 to 20 degree Celsius. Nowadays it barely reaches 20 Celsius in my area (southeast) during "winter".
So what will probably happens is that some parts of Brazil will become a desert. :)
Remind me of deicing in PEK during a snow storm in 2001. I was on a Northwest Airlines 747-400. During our 6 hour delay on the aircraft, an army of men shoveled the snow off the wings followed by sweeping it off. These guys were literally walking on the wings sweeping off the snow.
Another time in SJC we had ice on the wings. We boarded up and taxied to a remote location. The pilots parked our A319 for an hour or so letting the sun thaw the ice.
Global Warming strikes again. If it keeps going this way they will be opening ski resorts in Florida, maybe even Brazil. ;)
spent 4 days at the CIP lounge in Istanbul .....operation and customer service was a mess...finally left to Karachi via Male and Colombo...
It's probably better for the environment than those chemicals that other airlines use
I've got an ice scraper in my back seat that I'd be happy to loan them.
Is it unsafe or is it inefficient
Might as well just take a hammer and chisel and chopped away any chunks of ice on the wings an engines.
Wow. On one hand, that's hilarious, like watching Borat try his hand at flight operations. On the other hand, that's scary. "Hey bud, you're doing it wrong!"
I guess it could be worse, such as both guys standing on top of the wing while wearing cleated boots, pushing/scaping snow off the aircraft wings with metal snow shovels.
Wow! Unbelievable!
This is how the Wright Brothers removed ice from the airplane wings, too.
Ignorant and scary!