A reader writes

I should like to make a few points, of which Cllr Carter should be informed! Firstly, he says that Manston's runway is 2,752m. When I checked, it was 2,658m. Heathrow has two runways - 3,500m and 3,570m, with Gatwick's one at 3,750m. So nowhere near comparable.

He says that Manston "is able to cater for all modern jet aircraft"; that's all very well, but a fully-laden 747 or 767 could not safely take off because there is no room to abort a take off in case of problems. If you remember, an Afghan DC-8 almost came a cropper on 11th August 2010 when, as it was later discovered, it tried to take off 25,000 lbs overweight!

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Life under the flight path: 2

A reader writes:

I recently was speaking with a woman and we got on to the topic of the airport, not from a political anti-airport point of view, just mums chatting at a toddler group. She told me about her washing!

Funny little burn holes in her washing whilst it hangs on the line and she asked if we thought it could be aviation fuel?

The woman who runs the toddler group who lives in Cliffsend also said she gets tiny burn holes but only if the wind is in the direction of the airport. I wonder if this is a common phenomenon or coincidence?

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Any thoughts?

Desperate times call for desperate customers

In the glare of the floodlights at a remote Home Counties ­airfield the crew of an Iran Air passenger jet set about a discreet spot of sanctions ­busting. The bizarre sight of the Tehran-bound plane has become a regular event as it refuels at one of the UK’s smallest airports so the scheduled flight can return to Iran.

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Sanctions busting at Manston

Many of you have been wondering why the state airline of a pariah nation regularly visits a failing airport in the corner of England.

A while ago, I was told that Iran Air come to Manston to refuel, which struck me as a "reasonable reason" but a woefully inadequate explanation. Things are now becoming clearer...

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Urgent need for environmental assessment

I subscribe to your Newsletter which I find very informative. I would like to raise some questions about what involvement the Environment Agency (EA) have in these developments.

In my view, based upon past experience with Industrial Planning issues, the EA should be involved. Indeed I think they should be involved as part of all the planning issues and meetings. There are far too many environmental issues at stake for them not to be actively involved

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Iran Air at Manston

Yet another one of our eagle-eyed readers has raised an important and interesting question:

HAS ANY ONE NOTICED THAT THERE ARE AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK FLIGHTS TO MANSTON BY IRAN AIR? I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE CARRYING TO THE U.K.

You can tell it's important, because it's all in CAPITALS.

And it's interesting because not many Iran Air planes are even allowed to fly anywhere near Europe... Here's what our beloved Foreign & Commonwealth Office have to say:

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Safety and Security - Local Travel - Air Travel

The state carrier, Iran Air, has been refused permission to operate services to the EU with the exception of 14 aircraft of type A300, eight aircraft of type A310 and one aircraft of type B737. This restriction has been put in place because Iran Air has been unable to demonstrate that a number of aircraft in its fleet (including those of type A320, Boeing 727, B747-100, B747-200 and B747-SP) meet international safety standards.

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Whoops Apocalypse!

Here's a detailed report of what appears to have been quite a close call. Afghanistan-based Kam Air's overloaded plane nearly didn't make it. You don't need to be a technical expert to figure out what would happen if 143,700 lbs of aircraft fuel hits the deck.

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Video snippets from RTC 25th October

Many thanks to our Multimedia Department (Outside Broadcast Unit) for the following video snippets from the Ramsgate Town Council meeting at Chatham House School on 25th October...

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Manston: healthy and safe?

Brian Urwin (of the Ramsgate Alliance) spells it out, and tells the world. Public safety zones, fuel dumps, fireworks factory, flaky airlines, bird strike, radar interference from the windfarm, and NOISE... all this and more points to Manston not being particularly healthy or safe.

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