Discussions

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/WEN3242/history/20181203/1635Z/CYYC/CYQR  
 
If you zoom in you can see the plane circling for 3 hours before going to Regina. I guess it was due to fog in Brandon last night? Also thinking there was a reason why they chose Regina and not Winnipeg.  
 
Must be a pain for those travellers to end up in Regina and then have to bus to Brandon. (4 more hours)  
 
Wonder if this is common for the smaller Dash 8-400 Turbo props to not be able to visually navigate a landing?

the visibilty is below the minimums for the aircraft, they will divert. Even with the ILS system in Brandon, it has limits. Pilots must be able to see the runway at certain altitudes and distances.

Maybe Visibility was bad in the Peg also.

Trevor B said "the visibilty is below the minimums for the aircraft, they will divert. Even with the ILS system in Brandon, it has limits. Pilots must be able to see the runway at certain altitudes and distances. "

makes sense. Just that plane was in the air for quite some time circling. Gotta wonder how much fuel those smaller planes have.  
 
Wonder if they were just waiting for it to clear a bit, or just getting directions from nearby air traffic controllers?

All commercial aircraft carry enough fuel to get the the destination, then enough to be in a holding pattern for a while, then still make it to one of the 1-3 alternate airports to land.  
 
Its a redundancy built into every flight plan. The local controller in Brandon would've relayed weather conditions to WPG and they would have put it into a holding pattern to see if conditions cleared, then based on the pilots fuel level must've decided to use an alternate airport for the safe landing.

If the plane eventual destination was Calgary (which I assume it was) then it would make more sense from a business perspective to go west.

I do not understand why they landed in Regina and not Winnipeg. Regina is four hours away. Felt bad for the travellers who had to take a bus charter home. They were suppose to be in Brandon by 1230 in the afternoon and instead, they were in Brandon by 12 in the morning which was twelve hours later. Exhausting and tiring

Not that it is always right, but I bet there is a cost analysis. Stay in the air for x hours is cheaper then rerouting to another Airport, Now in the end they did both. So it was lots extra.  
 
I have no Idea who pays who or how that all works. But Brandon Airport will have staff being paid to receive the plane and get it back on its way. Which it never showed up till later.  
Regina would now have to have staff on to receive that plane so someone is paying that.  
And then they need to cover cost of getting the people from Regina to Brandon.  
 
Or it was just weather all around. I don't know what Regina was like that day, and maybe it was the closest airfield that cleared out the best. I am sure Regina was last airport they wanted to go to, but plane has to come down safely somewhere.  
 
Out of all the planes that turbo prop is probably the last plane I would ever want to be stuck on.

They could not land in Brandon due to FOG. They tried but couldn’t so they landed in Regina instead. I knew someone that was on it and they got super sick from exhaustion

Kim123 said "They could not land in Brandon due to FOG. They tried but couldn’t so they landed in Regina instead. I knew someone that was on it and they got super sick from exhaustion "

Why is that ? Did they have to run all the way back to Brandon .

Kdm said "    Kim123 said "They could not land in Brandon due to FOG. They tried but couldn’t so they landed in Regina instead. I knew someone that was on it and they got super sick from exhaustion " Why is that ? Did they have to run all the way back to Brandon . "

Have been on that flight, which is a connector from many destinations in B.C. and AB. Up in the middle of the night to catch Kelowna flight, then a mad dash through that nightmare of a Calgary airport, no time to eat or even stop for a bathroom break. All that is served on the plane is coffee/drinks and a bag of pretzels or a cookie.  
Add to that 3 more hrs. of circling in Brandon which probably made a lot of people airsick, then flying to Regina and catching a bus to Brandon. It would be super exhausting and stressful.  
Give your head a shake.

on that flight has issues, contact Westjet Encore!! It was a weather diversion, it's not something anyone likes but it does happen. As for not going to Winnipeg, Winnipeg may have not had any space for it at the terminal. Regina may have been the scheduled alternate for this flight by Westjet flight planners. Either way, Westjet got the passengers to Brandon.  
 
Visibility was down to 0.6 km during the time.  
 
http://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_data/hourly_data_e.html?StationID=50821&Month=12&Day=3&Year=2018&timeframe=1&StartYear=1840&EndYear=2018

Not funny. Because they were awake for over 20 hours and were on a different flight before catching this one

CatMan said "    Kdm said "    Kim123 said "They could not land in Brandon due to FOG. They tried but couldn’t so they landed in Regina instead. I knew someone that was on it and they got super sick from exhaustion " Why is that ? Did they have to run all the way back to Brandon . " Have been on that flight, which is a connector from many destinations in B.C. and AB. Up in the middle of the night to catch Kelowna flight, then a mad dash through that nightmare of a Calgary airport, no time to eat or even stop for a bathroom break. All that is served on the plane is coffee/drinks and a bag of pretzels or a cookie.   Add to that 3 more hrs. of circling in Brandon which probably made a lot of people airsick, then flying to Regina and catching a bus to Brandon. It would be super exhausting and stressful.   Give your head a shake. "

I have been on this flight many times as well as many other flights when such delays take place . Everyone will be alright It is about your perception when these situations arise There is always a risk of this happening and you must prepare yourself accordingly . It was just some light humour ! Relax Have a great day !

I’m sure everyone is fine now considering it was over a week ago but some of those passengers were exhausted and sick. As everyone knows, Brandon only fly to Calgary and back twice a day so most of those passengers were probably on a different flight before boarding this one. Even if they were just from Calgary going to Brandon, they had to wait 12 hours to get home which was only a 2 hour flight. You can imagine how tired they must be

On a gp to Edmonton flight they tried to Land couldn’t so had to fly back to gp refuel. Calgary was fogged in as well but not as bad if they went to Calgary and couldn’t land then we would of ran out of fuel going back to gp. So we sat on plane for 45 min then they said Calgary cleared up so we flew to Calgary instead of Edmonton. So maybe same thing they knew Regina was clear and wpg was fogged in too

Airlines don't want to divert to an alternate if they can avoid it. By diverting means they have to accommodate the passengers another way to get them to their destination, puts the aircraft and crew out of place.  
 
By the flight holding around Brandon shows that were hoping the conditions will improve and they can land in Brandon. Don't forget, they had passengers waiting in Brandon wanting to go to Calgary. They would of had to accommodate them as well.  
 
With the fog tonight, there might be another similar issue.

flight looks like it''''s in a holding pattern now.  
 
https://fr24.com/WEN3256/1ed750ab  
 
Nav Canada is showing visibility at 3/8 Statute Mile.  
 
 
Put in the airport code of CYBR and the most current is the top one.  
https://flightplanning.navcanada.ca/cgi-bin/CreePage.pl?Langue=:anglais&NoSession=:NS_Inconnu&Page=:Fore-obs%2Fmetar-taf-map&TypeDoc=:html  
 
Edited by Trevor B, 2018-12-11 23:44:04

WEN3256 is also going back to Calgary by the looks of it. This has me baffled now as I follow it on FlightRadar.  
 
Visibility at the airport is .62 km. Winnipeg is reporting .20 km visibility.

a friend of mine is on that flight - and her post on facebook says:  
 
Flights were great, we could see Brandon city lights, landing gear down.  
Getting excited, then unable to land due to ice fog.  
Back to Calgary for a short 3 hour sleep  
 
Edited by Brenda.., 2018-12-12 07:47:31

That is ridiculous. Happened a week later again even though we were getting fog warning and they still let people board the plane only to turn around and fly back to Calgary again