There have been 28 incidents of roof damage by wake vortices from planes in Florsheim, Frankfurt since October 2011
Date added: 3 April, 2016
There have been 28 incidents of roof damage by wake vortices in Florsheim from planes approaching Frankfurt airport, since the 4th runway opened in October 2011. The most recent incident was seen by a witness, who observed – on a day with little wind – the sudden wind, like a squall moving tree branches, and then the roof tiles being lifted off the house roof. The plane involved was a 777. Fortunately the tiles fell into the yard outside the house, and the family were indoors. The damage to roofs is yet another reason for intense opposition to the runway, from local residents who suffer its negative impacts. People say the heavy planes should not be allowed to fly over their homes, as the heavier the plane, the more likely is a wake vortex. The local authority requires Frankfurt airport operator Fraport AG to pay for work to bracket and secure roof tiles across much of the centre of Florsheim due to the numerous vortices. There can be problems in getting the tiles secured in older buildings, and this can cost the home owner money. Frapport is unwilling to pay if the roof is not already in good order. Wake vortices occur mainly in still weather, when wind does not disperse the vortex – that is turbulence from the wing tips. . Tweet
. It is almost an everyday in Florsheim that the north and northeast of the city in rows bricks tumble from the rooftops when planes fly over these areas at low altitude.
The tiles were broken after the fall in the yard.
[Approximate translation – thanks to Google translate – from the German]
The house in the street Riedstraße 75 is one of the last buildings before the edge of the field in Flörsheimer Northeast. Very close to the New Cemetery this is actually a very quiet residential area. Since the opening of the northwest runway in Autumn 2011, but it has arriving aircraft coming in to land at a low altitude over the residential area. The noise of the jet turbines is not only burden on the residents under the flight path. On Thursday afternoon, it there was wake damage in the Riedstraße. Vortices that had been triggered by a plane flying overhead, tore a hole in the roof of the house at number 75 and also left in the yard a scene of destruction. “The whole house shook,” says the 14-year-old Alina Weindorf, who was at home at the time of the incident. “It sounded as if a bomb was coming down in the far distance,” says the girl.
As a squall
Helga Reisz, an employee of a Flörsheimer funeral home, noticed the wake turbulence at a funeral. From the adjacent cemetery she happened to be watching as the incident occurred. First, she noticed that a plane was approaching in particularly deep (? low) approach of Riedstraße, said the eyewitness. “I even wondered whether it was going to land behind the chapel in the cemetery,” says Helga Reisz. This was at 13:58. When the Flörsheimerin a moment later turned towards the bell in front of the funeral parlour, she could not believe her eyes. They saw that the trees on the edge of the cemetery were moving, as if a violent squall had come up. Then she watched as the tiles lifted off the roof of a residential building in the Riedstraße, and chattering slid off the roof.
28 incidents since the opening of the northwest runway
The recent wake-damage in Riedstraße 75 was the 28th incident of its kind in Florsheim since the opening of the Northwest runway in October 2011, said Mayor Michael Ante Brink (SPD) on request of the district journal.The last incident of damage in the Riedstraße occurred in May 2015 in Austraße. The spring is apparently a typical period for the formation of wake vortices, writes Flörsheimer administrative boss who has almost become in recent years about wake damage. The formation of vortices depends on the weather.Ante Brink further explained that a vortex could particularly hit the ground if it is not too windy. The aircraft which caused the damage on Thursday have, can be identified precisely because of the witness observation and a review on the Internet, explained the mayor.It had been a Boeing 777 aircraft. This particularly heavy machinery are often cause of dangerous air turbulence, emphasizes Michael Ante Brink, who appeals to the Flörsheimer to leave secure their roofs. “You see what could happen,” he says, after the damage in the Riedstraße.