Regional airline LIAT is apologizing to customers traveling to and from Dominica for what it said is an increase in cancelled flights to the island being experienced in the past two weeks.
In a release Head of Corporate Communications at LIAT, Desmond Brown, said most of the cancellations have occurred at nights and blamed “strong seasonal winds.”
“LIAT sincerely regrets the inconvenience that many of our customers have had to endure as a result of the strong seasonal winds but the decision to cancel flights is taken in the interest of the safety of our flight crews and our customers. For all of us at LIAT, the number one priority is to run a safe and reliable operation throughout our network,” Brown said.
He explained that the Melville Hall Airport currently has a tailwind limitation of 15 knots for night landings and aircraft are not permitted to land there beyond these limits.
“While we will continue to do our best to provide our customers with a smooth travel experience, we must operate within the limitations set by the aircraft manufacturer and occasionally we will have no alternative but to cancel a night service due to the high winds,” Brown noted.
He also emphasised that LIAT still provides several flights to/from Dominica during the day light hours which are normally not affected by tail winds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOTuo1vdDkk
The worlds scariest airports. Melvillehall is not on it, but St. maarten is …. Watch the video. Stop the complaining.
We complain too much instead of seeking action. why didn’t the population protest the waste of money on the airport? we all stayed quiet but today we talk.
But Mr Skerrit and DLP, its time to realize, we have to do something big. something bold. u made a bold decision to build state palace, made a bold decision to build an airport. get the Chinese to Build it.
Chinese a yr ago completed a terminal building in a Canadian city and it is AMAZING! and they did it quickly. Lets leverage our China connection…. The are experts. Look at the type of airports they can build, even on water..
Lets make bold decisions !!!!!
We need non stop service from Florida, Atlanta, NewYork, London, Toronto, then we can explore becoming the first Caribbean – Asian distinction. For once lets be the first at something.
Be bold. We can do it. 30 hrs to asia from Dominica. Only caribbean distance to offer that service, we will be the asian caribbean hub…
Asians can us A caribbean Vacation too… We need to think outside the box and target a market that others think is impossible..
like most of u reading this are thinking its impossible or crazy. the most successful companies and products came from ideas that the masses thought was crazy….
i say lets be the first to target asian tourists.
I think Liat should give that explanation all the time. Once you instill fear in a people, you good to go. Ok, Dominicans, LIAT cancelled their flights to save your lives, you heard? Better safe than sorry eh/ Good to go. I am reading the responses here and it appears that Dominicans will continue to FAIL to hold people in authorities responsible. What is the truth here? WHen is the truth ever told, or does it ever have to be told when people believe everything they hear without asking further questions.
I am Dominica living outside travlling to Dominica is so much a
hustle
So why doesn’t the government invest in a giant fan pointyed toward the sea so that they can create an artificial head wind? After then spent all this money on the airport, surely they can afford to buy a giant fan.
some people want to call other fool,ignorant etc but they aware of things happening that not suppose to and they keeping their mouth shut!!!!!!!!!!!!who is the FOOL now.
If the wind is strong the best idea is cancel the flight for the safety of the customers. Is better safe than sorry.
where did the winds come from? the stupid administrators were too busy ggetting free boos and food from whoever .labor….labor forever.
good for you uneducated naive dominicans.are you surprised?
“Investigator”
BVI Airways everyday!
The thought of it is astounding and I’m shocked and agasped to know that the Gibbs Report of the 80s under Freedom Party on the Winds At evenings times during a 3-4 month period was ignored by this Government.
So why invest all that money in night landing and why invest all that money in LIAT?
Anonymous Dominican gave a good description of the issue.
I’d like to add this :
even if the tailwind is low, it is still dangerous to land there at night, in case of aborted landing at the last moment ( not exactly a go around ):
it would mean flying towards mountains in darkness,at very low altitude … !
This night landing was indeed a waste of money
So after all that noise. who here want to be on a plane landing in an unsafe condition. stop blaming Lait and tell de government to build a better airport. Maybe this time we will get it right.
DA is sitting on an aviation time bomb. Governments in the past and present are failing to see how,not only how important an international airport is, but how badly DA is being affected by not having one. We have already begun to see the problems with the government investing millions into Liat because they cannot let Liat fail. The government talks about developing Eco-tourism, hosting the WCMF,but how are tourist going to enjoy DA if its difficult to get there?. When coming from US,England,Canada etc.. Ur journey from these countr ies to either Antigua or Barbados is smooth, it’s from Antigua or Barbados to DA that’s the difficult bit. The things we have failed to do in the past and continue to fail to do is beginning to hunt us.
DNO, I have a fews questions and I need your help. In a letter to DNO dated Feb. 28, 2012, Mr. Desmond Brown said that the tailwind limitation was 10 knots. Today he is saying that Dom currently has a tailwind of 15 knots, which is 5 knots above the one of Feb 28, 2012. What caused it to go up? Did work on the airport cause the increase? Also, Didn’t Liat know about the tailwind before work on the airport began? If yes, why did they not advise the government about such a waste?
Mr. Brown is now saying that their reason for cancelling flight to Dom is due to safety of their crew members and customers. That we all agree with and understand. However, that leads me to another question. When they were paid large sums of money to test the nightlanding, did they take safety of their crew and Dominicans into consideration, since it was their first time?
Many unanswered questions!
“LIAT wishes to apologise to its customers travelling to/from Dominica and St. Vincent for the inconvenience they have been experiencing due to an increase in cancelled flights and delayed baggage.
Over the past two weeks customers travelling to/from Dominica have faced an unusual number of cancellations, especially at nights; while customers travelling to/from St. Vincent have experienced delays in receiving their baggage.
Head of Corporate Communications at LIAT Mr. Desmond Brown said the cancellations were due to high seasonal winds at both airports.” Copied from BVIPlatinum.
Report the whole story DNO and to youthe Dominican public stop playing politics for everything. BOTH AIRPORTS not only one. shucks
oh yes, you talk about politics because people expressed their opinions? Whah!
The difference between St. Vincent’s problem and ours in Dominica is very simple. St. Vincent took positive steps in solving their problem as come this year they will have a brand new international airport. On the other hand, the same PM of STV came right on our shores and told us during a DLP convention that we DID NOT NEED an airport. Instead our government invested heavily on Melville hall in the name of night landing, knowing full well that we had that adverse wind knot. That’s the real politics and thanks for bringing it up. Don’t blame it on DNO but rather DLP!!
Well said. As a former flight attendant, I prayed going into st Vincent at night every time I had to do so. it was a very difficult approach. One of my ex colleagues disappeared there with his plane and passengers during bad weather, the plane was never found. He made a couple of approaches trying to land and disappeared into the sea. I would not fly into Dominica at night. There are a lot of risks involved and Liat is very right taking the action they have taken. Please think before you write.
Well I rather overnight than crash, so do what you need to do yes liat. Rather a minor inconvinience to me than a grave any time. Nothing we can do about seasonal winds. Remember Aliyah crashed when she ignored that “prevention better than cure”.
P.s: I see some people want the govt to create some form of wind defence system to counteract Mother Nature. Dominicans again. Politics for everything
Let me ask, Do these strong winds occur during nights only or during the day too? I am trying to understand the overall rational. If the explanation is correct, i would assume that once the winds reach 15 knots both day and nights flights are canceled.
I think in Dominica once a story is released people think either blue or red. A colorless explanation would suffice.
Nothing New those winds occur annually..
These cancellations are nothing new…
Just shows and emphasis the point that Prof folks In Dominica lack Higher thinking..
The studies have been there from the Gibbs Report Back in the 80s under Freedom Party…re the Winds At evenings times during a 3-4 month period.
But why Dominica will continue to suffer and the Other Caribbean islands soar Higher to better Ideals, base facts are their Ignorance Levels In These islands are down to a 0.2%..
While Ignorance in Dominica is at a alarming..
85%…SO HOW YOU EXPECT YOUR ECONOMY TO GROW!
Facts are key..Please get rid of the Ignorance!
those people are not qualified to run a country.vote them in again.
to the writer who asked about tail winds at night… Planes normally approach and land from the hills during daylight hours. Since they are unable to do so at night, they are forced to land from the sea, where the prevailing winds are now tailwinds. All aircraft ideally land and take off INTO the wind (headwind). Hope this helps
Good decision liat, where safety is given priority. However, this cancellation drama has been going on for the longest while. Trust me, most times, if one has a last flight from or to Dominica is cancelled and some reason is given. Its become an unwise idea to trust the last flight or what this Government calls night landing.
Solution: Build an international airport. And the government has to be blamed for this night landing drama which was always a failure from the start given the location of the present airport and the high winds coming from the Atlantic Ocean. But in truth and in fact, these engineers who work on this airport must have been joking from the word go… maybe they tried to set up the government and make Dominica remain backward and under pressure…… Just an opinion….
As had as it may be, please get things together for the international airport- which is honestly a tough call for Dominica- given the economy and the brghtness of the Government.
Had they continued the plan of the former administration and build the international airport we would be in line with the other islands . Right now — we in a Caribbean race and truth be told – Dominica is last or one before the last.. and it might remain so for a long long time , given the poor decision or the blatant unavailability of critical thinking in within this Government…
So liat is so right— don’t risk lives ….and smart people from Dominica please choose flights wisely…..
PS: whoso ever doesn’t wan too blame poor governance for this night landing drama must be living in dream land……. or a fools paradise according to Bob Marley…
Some one help me, why the tail winds at nights only?
I’m not sure if this explains tail winds, but it does explain why wind direction on the coast can be different at day and night.
Water takes longer to heat up and longer to cool down than the land (to be technical – water has a higher specific heat than most other common substances).
During the day the land gets hotter than the surrounding water, but at night it gets colder.
Hot air rises. During the day the air over the land rises and cooler air comes in from the sea to replace it. So the wind tends to blow from the sea.
At night the land becomes cooler than the sea, so air flows from the land out to sea. The wind changes direction and blows out to sea.
The term “tailwind” would refer to wind that is blowing in a direction from behind the aircraft towards the front of it.
In the part of the island where the airport is, the prevailing wind (as far as i know) comes from the sea towards the land, that is, from the east to the west.
During the day, aircraft landing at melville hall usually use runway “9”, or the “mountain side” of the runway to land. With the aircraft landing in this manner (from west to east), the prevailing winds are in fact a ‘headwind’, which obviously is the opposite of a tailwind. In aviation, headwinds are preferred for landings and takeoffs and, in fact, may provide safer landings and takeoffs than if there were no winds at all because this allows the aircraft to move through the air more slowly but the wings produce the same amount of lift to keep the aircraft afloat. So, slower approach speeds means less runway distance to slow down after landing. Aircraft also use less runway for takeoff in a headwind.
At night, the aircraft use runway ’27’ (seaside end of the runway) for landing. I suppose this is due to obvious visibility limitations at night and rough terrain surrounding the airport, a combination that would make a runway 9 approach at night extremely difficult and DANGEROUS. Unfortunately, using runway 27 means the prevailing winds act as a tailwind for the aircraft, doing the exact opposite to what a headwind would: increasing runway usage distances and therefore increasing the likelihood that the aircraft may run out of runway. In addition to that, upon realizing that approach speeds may be too high or the approach to runway 27 is unstable, the pilots may want to conduct a ‘go-around’ or missed approach to try to land again. However, having to do so when initially heading in a westerly direction (towards the mountains and rough terrain) is obviously very dangerous.
So, i think this is purely a safety decision and a right decision by LIAT to cancel some of these night flights. I know some people may not be happy but LIAT apparently has their customers best interests at heart.
Sorry for the long post but i hope that cleared it up.
Well explained!! Even the simplest reader should understand this.
Finally someone with sense posts on DNO. Thanks.
Long??? Not at all, I have seen longer posts. This was informative and appreciated. No need to apologize.
Respectfully
Roseau Valley
Very good explanation very precise and clear.
I totally agree with you. After having read your article I gather that you are either a pilot or into the aviation field. Remember the pilot in command is the final authority to the safe operation of his or her aircraft. Landing an aircraft at the Melville Hall Airport with a tailwind at night or even in the day light hours is plain dangerous. In aviation, safety is of utmost importance. For the aviation minded. There are three things that a pilot cannot use. They are
(1)The fuel left in the fuel truck
(2)The altitude left above him
(3)The runway left behind him.(very important)
The tailwind tend to push the aircraft forward during landing therefore making his landing longer and the runway in use shorter. If the pilot cannot land the airplane he has to go missed or go around. He can either try again or go to his alternate airport thereby putting additional cost to the company and fustrating the passengers who want to get to their destination. L.I.A.T is operating on the side of safety and we should applaud them for doing so.
Here we are reading about a decision taken purely on the need to protect life and property, a pure technical decision by LIAT’s management. Unfortunately some fool (that is what they are) must bring in local partisan politics. How sad for all of us in Dominica
just wish i could like this more than once
@ Observer… Your accomplished idiot. Liat is all about politics. Put that in your big, ugly, square and empty head.
You don’t tell people when to, and when not to talkj politics. Go to Hell! Go to Hell! Go to Hell! No Law NO Constitution Can prevent me from Speaking/Writing Politics.Come nah: Man to man I Will Marsh you Up!
Had it not been for the laziness, incompetence and corrupt leadership of this failed regime, we would have had an international airport longtime.
The regime has wasted more than a million dollars at Melvillehall plus thousands to construct a State Evil, while the poor Doninican man is hungry.
Observer……..politics must come in here because it was a stupid political decision by theinept Labour Government to throw millions!!!!!! in this nonsense melville hall project.
LIAT you are RIGHT! SAFETY FIRST!! But the country have so much other tail winds nothing landing…The Economy has been in a serious Tail wind spinning out of control……
The problem is not the cancellation of the flights because of the wind, that’s understandable. Its the management of flights and passengers after! Crappy service, no proper explanations, late flights, re-routed flights, lost baggage, and on and on and on. Trust me I experienced it over the past few days and LIAT’s service is horrendous, and that’s putting it mildly. But sadly, we have no alternative so we are stuck with the same mediocre service day in and day out. Whats going to happen when American Eagle pulls out soon? I shudder to think………
Sadly I agree with you. Unfortunately, it will not get any better if we are to follow LIAT chairman’s advocay for more Govt. control of the airline. LIAT already enjoys a virtual monopoly and with state ownership, which will virtually eliminate competion, it will be a situation of “take it , or leave it” i.e. LIAT can take us or leave us, on their terms with little or no recourse.
Who in the kitchen feels the heat!
Flights are being cancelled or delayed any and every where in the world – depending on the weather. It is an inconvenient but it is the facts of life.
Well anyone who lives in the north east of Dominica knows that these “Christmas Winds” from the north east are strong during December January.
When plans were afoot for extending and lighting Melville Hall I heard all this talk from supposed educated people that “The wind comes from the land at night so landing from the sea at night will be fine”. That is school geography text book stuff.
Sadly for us it could be that, given this situation, LIAT may not continue to schedule night flights for Dominica. But if day flights are delayed after sunset a decision can be taken, based on winds, whether to land or not.So the lights will still be useful.
Better that, than to repeatedly overfly Dominica because a sheduled flight cannot land.
Well there is no going back now. You make your bed, you sleep on it.
No donors will finance a new airport in these economic times and we missed the boat for Woodford Hill (DFP) and for Wesley (UWP)on previous occasions. We just have to live with it.
“LIAT blames strong winds for night flight cancellations”
Admin, you all could do better than that. Are you all insinuating something? The reason for flight cancellations are because of the high winds. Did you experience the winds which are quite strong?
I believe that you should. English smh!
like u could do better if u hired
Yes I would and they eliminated part of the release which was very important as Dominica is not the only country being battered by heavy winds.
This part of the release is missing:
“Over the past two weeks customers travelling to/from Dominica have faced an unusual number of cancellations, especially at nights; while customers travelling to/from St. Vincent have experienced delays in receiving their baggage.”
ADMIN: Our concern here is Dominica. Let St. Vincent media report about what is affecting their island.
did they cancel the flights because of the wind during the day?
The natural laws of entropy are kicking in on this government.There is increasing disorderness with every passing moment as the second law of thermodynamics dictate. A collapse is inevitable of this clueless regime. Sad but true
“disorderness”?????
Garcon mi vah! This is some serious winds being experienced in my part of the island. Not me that would go on them ti zozieu. Good decision Liat. People can say what they want,(their right. sadly) but, Y’all always put people’s safety first and don’t take risks.
Well they have something to blame…
Air access issues … again!
The 15 knots limitation is set by the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority, this particular airplane can land with a 20 knots tailwind.
Yes Dominiquen but the terrain plays a part too. This max. tailwind, with an approach from the sea is the limit for Melville Hall and I agree. Safety first.
ok pilot!!!!if ur mother was on it and something had happened to that plane with her on board u would be singing a different song so shut the hole in your face
Dominica is a mess. Crying out for fresh new leadership.
Where is this coming in
So you want to blame Skerrit for the tail wind too?
To do what??? Calm the winds and the seas!!!! How can this be blamed on leadership??!!
Fresn new leadership that is less corrupt. ITS A CESSPOOL OF CORRUPTION.Government can’t function properly. All energies day after day are expended trying to cover up corruption.
Has nothing to do with strong tailwinds and safety. U a fool!
Your fingers will cramp at your keyboard and you will never see that change you yearn for anytime soon.
We will roll with Skerritt in good times and bad times – for we know what Skerrit’s best is thus far and what was UWP best. Trust me UWP can never come close to the achievements of Skerrit. Oh and one more thing Skerrit is young and has acquired a wealth of experience and wisdom to further develop Dominica.
Let not your heart be troubled for the Dominica Labor Party administration lead by Skerrit is working, has worked and will continue to work for a better Dominica.
No one ever said the next level developmental experience for Dominica was free of pain.
Liat you are definitely right safety first. In November I travel from Dominica to Barbados on liat and that was the smoothest landing ever and am an international traveler.
safety is best.
Pity but then this limitation was always known, except that those in authority did not care to mention it with all that fanfare of the first offical night landing on 20 Sept. 2010. Makes me wonder why the P.M. chose not to be a passsenger on that inaugural flight. Still, half an egg is better than an empty shell.
you know what does amaze me travelling to Trinidad at nights, coming from Dominica? The fact that liat makes stops in St.Vincent and Canoaun (an even smaller island with an airport which feels like Canefield) at nights. I have never been scared of landing in Dominica, but Vincie does freak me out at nights. I truly believe our problem to be largely the orientation of the runways since our airstrip is considerably longer than those that I just mentioned. Our only solution, when the money becomes available is to build a new airport, but for now I agree we must keep what we have and do the best with what we have.