How do they announce a plane has crashed to people waiting at the airport? These chilling arrivals boards from real crashes reveal all
WHEN a plane crashes or doesn’t reach its destination, the airport informs those waiting at the other end – but how do they do it?
Chilling images show the arrivals boards that were seen at airports following some of the plane crashes that devastated the world in recent years.
While some have the words ‘delayed’ or ‘cancelled’ listed for the flight numbers, others have left the box blank completely.
Many of these messages are generated from being linked to flight systems such as FlightAware or Flight Status.
If a human doesn’t manually interfere, these may generate a ‘delayed’ or blank message without an estimated time of arrival.
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Here are some recent examples of arrivals boards following tragic crashes that have been posted on Quora:
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 - 8 March 2014
The Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Those waiting in Beijing for flight MH370 were shown a ‘delayed’ message for the flight on the arrivals board.
Friends and family were later given daily briefings as the exploration for the Malaysia Airlines flight began.
Indonesia AirAsia flight 8501 – 28 December 2014
The scheduled AirAsia flight 8501 failed to land in Singapore after taking off from Surabaya, Indonesia.
In Singapore, the arrivals board read ‘Go To Info Counter' and gave the opportunity for those waiting to find out about the situation from a staff member.
Helios Air flight 522 - 14 August 2005
The Helios Air flight 522 took off from Larnaca and was set to land in Barcelona.
During the flight, the aircraft had an oxygen shortage causing crew to become incapacitated.
This led to the plane circling around Athens before running out of fuel and crashing into Gramatiko Hill just outside of the city.
Those waiting in Barcelona saw a ‘Cancelled’ message on the board.
Germanwings flight 9525 - 24 March 2015
When the Germanwings flight 9525 crashed into the Alps, the arrivals board in Dusseldorf didn’t share any information with those waiting.
The estimated arrival time, gate and status on the board were all left blank.
The plane had taken off from Barcelona and was set to land in Germany.
Air France 447 - 1 June 2009
The Air France 447 flight was headed to Paris after taking off in Rio de Janeiro but tragically crashed over the Atlantic.
Those checking the board in Paris for the Air France 447 crash saw ‘Delayed’ written as the plane’s status.
Air Algerie flight 5017 - 24 July 2014
Similarly Algiers Airport, also known as Houari Boumediene Airport, also had ‘delayed’ written as 'retarde'.
The flight had set off from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and was headed for Algiers in Algeria.
Unlike other delayed flights at the airport, the Air Algerie flight 5017 did not include an estimated arrival time.
The flight was due to land at 5am in Algeria’s local time and image shows the board still featuring the delayed message at 1.30pm.
This week we did a factfile on what happened to flight MH370 and where is the missing Malaysia Airlines plane?
Last week we wrote about flights being cancelled at Belfast City Airport as blizzard conditions battered the UK.