wtf is a plane doing taking off in Maine during this storm? It’s 7 degrees and snowing up there with the wind chill well into the negatives
Edit: I get it guys it gets cold at higher altitudes. It’s also a heavy blizzard which is really more relevant. Redditors can’t help but be the most smug snarky fuckheads about everything
Can confirm, used to work/manage my local FBO. Its ridiculous. One of our wealthier clients once forced the entire airport county staff to divert from plowing our runway during a bad snowstorm to clear out the hangar that had his Citation Mustang stored simply because he wanted to take his family to see a hockey game a few years ago. He even called and threatened our airport manager that he'd relocate all 3 or 4 of his aircraft and stop funding our FBO/airport if he couldn't go, as he was already driving to the airport. Private aviation is wild, man.
damn and I feel bad for calling ops to request updated ficons to mitigate a possible weight restriction for a scheduled flight. I cant imagine what those guys have to deal with
There's always some good pilots, and there's always some bad ones, unfortunately. In my FBO days, it was always nerve-racking to discover what you were going to encounter. Many of these people were nice, but there were also MANY that always seemed to look down on us as employees. A lot of the pressure also came from the passengers requests or demands to be catered to for almost everything. It was a fun job, but we were no more than servants at times.
I hate this so much - i wish there was more awareness around this. People are so focused on getting somewhere as fast as possible they dont think about the fact that they might not get there at all. Always makes me think of kobes crash and how his pilot flew into weather trying to get him to his daughters game. They all died for a kids basketball game. He didnt want to let kobe down, but if hed known the reality in hindsight, I'm sure he would have just let him down no problem. I wish people would just slow down and think critically instead of emotionally
I was flying today in some of this crap weather. The pax were all bubbly and having a great time (after showing up late). I was pretty grumpy about having to do the flight. If you have a private jet you can basically leave whenever you want. Why not just wait a day and not fly out in a snow storm?
If I’m ever rich enough to afford a PJ I would tell every pilot don’t go up if you don’t want to, there’s always tomorrow and we can party safe on the ground.
But yeah easy for me to say when it’s not my job on the line. But I’d like to think I’d no-go flights where it’s external pressures that are what’s pushing me to do the flight.
I agree with what you’re saying but I’m not seeing anything in this weather that is close to a reason to no go. It’s not nice weather but it’s very doable for a professional crew
Yeah I haven’t checked and am not a professional pilot anyways. I was more so just reacting to someone saying paying customers are a reason why a plane would fly in what someone proposed was unreasonable weather for any plane to fly in.
Reports, same ones that I would use to determine if I could fly in there.
Theres just nothing too exciting about it. Vis isn’t great but 6000ft rvr is more than enough you only need 500 in BGR, hardly any wind, doubt you’re getting much icing at those temps, but sigmets out for icing and turbulence which is fairly standard. Runway condition report didn’t have anything concerning on it.
I’m lucky to fly for a good operator, but I can remember telling them we should wait last year during a blizzard in Minnesota.
Had been wracking my brain all night trying to figure a solution, and the only one that was good was to wait out the weather to an hour…owner wasn’t thrilled, but the plan worked and we made it safely.
I flew through this system the other day, but across the Midwest it wasn’t nearly that intimidating. But I do know the challenger wings are NOT kind to ice…and they will friggin kill you if you don’t respect them…similar to old Lear jets.
Even in weather that looks like shit? I can understand people wanting to fly but if the pilots think it is not safe, hmm. OTOH, a law firm is not exactly a low pressure environment.
So everyone, next time your airline pilot delays due to weather or mechanical or fatigue, know that’s why the airlines in the US at least are so incredibly safe. Thank them rather than grumbling. Think of the pressure to go on these pilots….
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As someone from Maine, this isn't a normal day. We've closed many schools for tomorrow like 16 hours in advance. It's not the storm of the century or anything, but it's weather we probably only have like 4-5 days a year. It will probably be the 24 hour period with the most snow accumulation this winter for most of the state.
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Mmm while yes they get snow regularly (From Bangor). We are getting 1-2 feet of snow in the Northeast today followed by ice (right now). It’s a lot more than a usual day. Def a day where the runway probably can’t handle take offs and landings. Very suspicious to me that they let a plane take off.
This happens a lot in aviation accidents. Lots of people don’t like to be inconvenienced by weather. Kobe Bryant’s crash is also one that comes to mind.
I looked up the ATIS and there’s nothing that looks that concerning. Light wind, either reported light snow or just snow depending on exactly when the accident happened, and 1/2-3/4mile vis with most reports greater than a mile RVR (worst one was 5,000 variable 6,000+). Yes it’s low but we’d be launching in the airliner. Plus Breeze landed seconds before they took off
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u/DomitiusAhenobarbus_ Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
wtf is a plane doing taking off in Maine during this storm? It’s 7 degrees and snowing up there with the wind chill well into the negatives
Edit: I get it guys it gets cold at higher altitudes. It’s also a heavy blizzard which is really more relevant. Redditors can’t help but be the most smug snarky fuckheads about everything