Stubborn C.O. fog a challenge for pilots, travelers

A number of flights were delayed or canceled in and out of the Redmond Airport Sunday and early Monday morning due to fog, which continued to cause issues through the day.

According to the National Weather Service and the Flight Safety Foundation, flying in fog can be deadly for pilots, even the most experienced ones.

That’s why airports take the utmost precaution when foggy conditions arise. On Sunday night, a flight took off from Seattle with hopes of landing in Redmond, despite the fog.

But that didn’t happen, at least not when it was supposed to, passenger Tiffany Boileau said Monday. It’s a tale familiar to Northwest air travelers during the often-foggy winter.

“We took off and we flew down here, and we circled for about 15 to 20 minutes. They said we couldn’t land, so we had to fly back to Seattle,” Boileau said. “They said they were going to put us on another plane — and then it was delayed and delayed, and then they finally canceled it. So we just decided to rent a car and drove home from Seattle last night.”

Boileau said she could see the fog in Redmond as the plane circled above. She also said she’s happy with the pilot’s decision not to land. And she’s happy with her decision, along with several others, to instead drive the distance between Seattle and Redmond.

“I think they did job of saying, ‘OK, we’re going to get you on this next flight, and then we’re going to try again.’ But then some people were like, ‘I don’t want to try again. I don’t want to go through this whole thing again,'” she said. “So I think that’s why quite a few people made the decision to rent a car and drive home from Seattle.”

Aviation rules say that when a pilot is making a landing, if they can’t see the runway at 200 feet from the ground, they can’t land. The 200 feet gives them enough time to pull back, if a safe landing is not possible.

Also, planes always fly with enough fuel to not only get them to their destination but also to an alternative airport, in case a landing is not possible.

Alexander Normington, a flight instructor at Leading Edge Aviation, said flying in fog is like skiing in whiteout conditions.

“In the past 24 hours, during the day, the fog has been kind of lifting, but at night or early in the morning, there’s a really cold, dense fog,” Normington said. “It makes your ability to see the runway or see through it almost impossible. Even on the ground, you might have kind of a range just breaking though the fog. It makes it almost impossible to see through.”

Some planes are equipped with high-tech computers to be able to land in dense fog, but the airport the plane is landing at needs to have the same equipment.

Check the status of RDM arrivals and departures here: http://www.flyrdm.com/?Flight-Status

Traveling by road instead? Here’s our Webcam page and our ODOT TripCheck page.