ATC Question, or what was going on on the East Coast Tues?

Tuesday we had a Lufthansa 747 drop out of the sky and land here. Huge
T-storm making its way thru the area. 747 was inbound because he was
running low on fuel. He told us that after we pried it out of him. He
refused to tell ZLC of any problem, just that they were diverting to
Billings. When we start talking to him 35 SE he told us he had 7 tons
of fuel. Refused to tell us how much that was in hours and minutes, as
is standard. He couldn't fly a straight line to the airport because of
the storm. Basically a big 30 mile arc until about a 25 mile final.
Landed without incident. On takeoff he blew over three box signs along
the runway. One of the guys at the tower knows an airline pilot and he
said that the 747-400 burns approx 35,000 pounds per hour. He had
14,000 pounds 30 miles out. It was almost a big day in Billings.



Peter R. wrote:
John Kirksey wrote:


Was this because of storms?


Yes, there was a pretty intense line of thunderstorms that moved into the
area.

Sometimes while working at my PC, if I see an intense line of thunderstorms
on radar moving towards the NY or Boston area, I go to www.liveatc.net and
listen to the live ATC feeds. It makes for a very interesting listen.

Newps wrote:

Tuesday we had a Lufthansa 747 drop out of the sky and land here. Huge
T-storm making its way thru the area. 747 was inbound because he was
running low on fuel. He told us that after we pried it out of him. He
refused to tell ZLC of any problem, just that they were diverting to
Billings. When we start talking to him 35 SE he told us he had 7 tons
of fuel. Refused to tell us how much that was in hours and minutes, as
is standard. He couldn't fly a straight line to the airport because of
the storm. Basically a big 30 mile arc until about a 25 mile final.
Landed without incident. On takeoff he blew over three box signs along
the runway. One of the guys at the tower knows an airline pilot and he
said that the 747-400 burns approx 35,000 pounds per hour. He had
14,000 pounds 30 miles out. It was almost a big day in Billings.

I'm surprised your runways can handle that weight. :-)


Matt