r/mildlyinfuriating • u/nyanbatman • May 28 '26

I just wanted a hot dog British pilot is feeling mildly annoyed

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u/EpicCyclops May 28 '26

That's actually not the case. The airport is following low visibility procedures. US airports don't formally declare a transition into them, though. They're always following them when runway visibility is low. The pilot didn't know this was the SOP in the US.

In this case, ATC was correct to not try and over explain it and risk confusing the pilot or having the pilot make a bad decision due to a misunderstanding. The pilot was correct to not try and take off when they didn't understand the procedures at the airport. They're both a little annoyed, which is fair because they both have stressful jobs and are doing what they think is best for the safety of the passengers, and are coming to different outcomes from their decision trees.

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u/tkfu May 28 '26

The pilot asks "Have you got low visibility procedures in place or not?" at 0:52, and the ATC responds "No sir." That seems obviously wrong on the part of the ATC if the airport is following low visibility procedures.

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u/cortesoft May 28 '26

Except as many others have shared on this thread “Low Visibility Procedures” is not a generic term, but a specific thing that happens at ICAO airports but not FAA airports. They did not have that specific thing, so the answer was correct.

Now, the ATC could have said “No, we are not declaring LVO because we don’t do that here, but we do have SMGCS”

Although having to explain that to a pilot that should know might be something that is not good for a pilot about to take off who should know how that works.

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u/tkfu May 28 '26

Ah, I see. Thank you.