Severe Weather Forces Multiple Flight Diversions from Nantes Airport, Impacting Local Residents

As at the beginning of the week, the bad weather forced pilots on Saturday to divert several planes that were supposed to land at Nantes airport to Brest, La Rochelle and Bordeaux, after several attempts to land. "A flight from Fez (Morocco) in particular landed in Brest, two others from Lyon and Amsterdam finally left for Bordeaux late in the morning," francebleu reports. The takeoff requires go-arounds that disrupt the tranquility of the residents of Rezé, located just below the flight paths. "They go around in front of my window," says Aurélie, who lives between the town hall and the Trocardière in Rezé, along the Jaguère stream, just under the flight path.

"In damp weather, it creates a kind of sounding board. It’s a very low vibration that spreads through the walls, it makes the veranda walls vibrate. At first, we think it’s the storm coming, but no. The planes try to land, and we only have 3-4 minutes of respite between each passage," she complains, adding that her husband no longer sleeps. "We put in earplugs from 6am, and now we’re changing the window. The curfew, from midnight to 6am, is often not respected. There are takeoffs at 2:15 am, 2:30 am... You, when you run a red light, you’re out of bounds, the police don’t ask if you’ve been there for one or two seconds, you get a fine! Here it’s not respected," laments Aurélie.

In total, about fifteen planes land per hour at Nantes airport in the summer. But the wind coming from the west complicates the landing, the planes having to fly over Nantes. In this direction, there is an absence of a high-precision guidance system (ILS) installed at the level of the runway. And in this configuration, the pilots have to see the beginning of the runway in order to be able to land. In addition to this constraint, there has been a change in the landing rules. In January, the administrative services require pilots to decide 90 meters higher whether they can land or not.

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