IHAQ wrote:
I don’t understand the plane logistics in this anecdote.
- The plane's original destination was Heathrow.
- The plane landed 30 ish miles away from Heathrow at Gatwick.
Why would it then refuel and fly to Manchester, 200 miles away instead of simply waiting to arrange to offload passengers at Gatwick and bus them the 30 miles to Heathrow?
It makes no sense.
London Heathrow, London Gatwick, and Manchester airports, all of which have runways in excess of 10,000 feet, were fully capable of handling the Concorde. At some point during its service life, the Concorde had scheduled or non-scheduled services to and from each of them.
IHAQ is right, diverting to Manchester due to weather at Heathrow, when Gatwick was open, makes no sense whatsoever. The statement that there would be no customs agents available at Gatwick is also nonsense. Gatwick has customs agents available at all times when the airport is open for flight operations, which it would have been, that time of day. Not only that but Concorde passengers were provided with exclusive expedited arrival and customs formalities as a perk.
Does anyone really believe that British Airways would hold passengers (especially Concorde passengers) on an aircraft that was 45 miles from Heathrow and 30 miles from London while it refueled, received clearance, and flew 200 miles to Manchester so the passengers could clear customs and then catch the next flight of 200 miles back to Heathrow, or indeed Gatwick?
Furthermore, I doubt very much that the Captain, First Officer, or Flight Engineer of a British supersonic jetliner, arranging to be diverted to an alternate airport with half the time to do so as a subsonic jet, would leave the flight deck to come to the main cabin and debate with a self-important American about his desire to breach travel protocols. The Head Flight Attendant would be about the highest-ranking crew Russell M. Nelson would have been likely to see.