Passenger plane overshoots runway

Just before 9.00 pm tonight a passenger plane overshot the runway at Newcastle Airport. At least, that's what is being reported. Except the plane remained on the tarmac according to Tyne and Wear Fire Service. In this report from the BBC there is one version from a passenger - "The plane started to shudder after we hit the runway. The pilot was putting on the brakes... we quickly realised we were over the front of the runway and the front end of the plane was in the field. People didn't realise how serious it was until we got off the plane." Then there was the version from the fire service group manager - "They seemed fine in all honesty, it's just they were disembarking in a different position. Most of them did not realise anything was different."

Funny how two people can see things so differently.

Chambers of Commerce in Heathrow hotair

I've just seen a guy from the North-East Chambers of Commerce talking on BBC News. Ross Somebody. Apparently he thinks this Heathrow expansion is good news. When asked why, he said he hoped some of the new slots at Heathrow would be given over to flights to Newcastle. This much alarmed the interviewer, as his blatant reasoning was nothing much to do with anything other than a quick fix for transport via "a UK hub".

The Chambers of Commerce are fast becoming the trojan horse in all this. I am not against reasoned airport expansion, but not on the airy fairy lines most of these guys in the airport business go along. They have the mantra about "creating jobs" and that "our prosperity is at risk". The same parrots that suddenly stopped sqwarking at the time of the sub-prime fiasco and all the dodgy dealings of last year.

Newcastle Airport is not cut off from the rest of the world. There are flights to Dubai with Emirates with onward connections. And they have access to a hub in Amsterdam with KLM and CDG in Paris. Of course, this Ross guy knows that, but he doesn't want the present flights out of Newcastle publicised. He wants to dig up more land in Middlesex so he can have more flights from Heathrow. It's moronic and it's shameful.

If a businessperson wanted to fly to Newcastle from anywhere they can do it via Amsterdam or Paris. Why on earth would they be more impressed by going through Heathrow. For starters the shopping is better in Amsterdam. All British airports need to get a grip of what's on offer in the retail side of their businesses before they start dreaming of third runways.

However, listening to Ross one could be forgiven for thinking that the North-East was stranded and suffering business-wise. He conveniently did not mention that British Airways currently flies from Heathrow to Newcastle,so why would he want want to keep quiet on that one.

In all this waffle, we must be on the lookout for the disingenous and the downright deceitful. Oh, and isn't it funny that these Chamber types are so pro-European when it suits them but anti-European when they think it fits their agenda.