It's 4.30am and the heathrow flight path appears to be in use

[maxtedc]

is this the new norm? I didn't think large planes were allowed to land at this time. It's not the first time either.

[EDmummy]

As far as I'm aware (12 years in ED) this has always been the case. Nothing new.

[maxtedc]

I've been here 9 years and never noticed until last month. Obviously I'm not very observant. :) It does seem strange that should be the case when the earliest the large planes can't land before 6am. It doesn't bother me in the slightest, clearly it was taken me 9 years to notice it, but I'm just curious.

[drew]

Its mainly the SE Asian carriers. If they make good time, its hard to expect the planes to circle London for an hour or so.

There are certain allowances outside the curfew times ... Boeing has a good summary of the current allowances:

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/noise/heathrow.html

[davidh]

4am is the daily norm. as an insomniac I hear it and realise that the nightly torment is nearly over.

[BQC]

Yes, all mums know about the 4am planes...

[Carbonara]

In my experience there is a busy stream of planes that start arriving at about 4 or 4.30 am. I didn't realise it wasn't supposed to happen!

[jimmyay]

max 4 arrivals between 4 and 5 . some days none. most flights start after 5.

[Carbonara]

JimmyYay - is that was is actually allowed?

There are far more than that most days!

[boomerang]

The airport is officially open 24 hours but there is a night ban on flights between 11pm and 4.30am - airlines must get (and pay a considerable amount of cash for) special dispensation to land between those hours... between 4.30am and 6.02am only a handful of flights are allowed to land and they invariably come in from the far east, some US destinations and some destinations in Africa. Flights not scheduled to land before 6.02, that arrive before that time, are not allowed to land and are stacked above London and surrounding areas until after 6.02 (most flights will take into account the flight time to allow them to arrive around their scheduled arrival time)... the noise is nothing new to the area... at 3pm everyday the runways at Heathrow are swapped to give residents on the flight path a break. This is why sometimes you'll hear the planes coming in and sometime you wont. Aircraft only approach over London to land and never take off and ascend over London.... hope this info helps..

[Siduhe]

Since November, Heathrow has been trialling a new system which allows them to move to dual use of runways when a plane is delayed by more than a 10-minute wait to land or take off and/or if 30% of all flights are delayed by more than 15 minutes. There was a diagram I saw which suggested this would increase the number of flights coming over south east London, and you don't necessarily got the few weeks on/few weeks off respite from early morning flights coming in to land. The trial finishes on 29 Feb and apparently complaints about noise from close to Heathrow have risen substantially:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17006619

[James Barber]

Night flights operate 11pm-6am. Upto 30 a night around 10,000 a year out of Heathrows 580,000 flight allowance.

Apparently they're critical to the airlines, airport and supposedly UK economy.

I joined Heathrow Action Campaign Against Noise (HACAN) some time ago. Night flights cause hundres of thousands of Londoners impaired sleep. Crazy. If the noise troubles you join up with HACAN as well.

The night flght system is up for review this year. Hopefully they'll be banned and everyone can get a better nights sleep.

[Bony Fido]

I worked at Heathrow for about 5 years in the 1990's and arrivals from the far east and Australasia always started arriving around 04:30 am. There were very few takeoffs between 10:40 pm (BA to Tel Aviv) and about 06:30 am apart from an occasional mail plane to Europe. Contrast the Heathrow terminals overnight - where you could almost hear a pin drop - to Gatwick which is busy almost around the clock with all night flights, especially in summer, taking off over a rural area. At least we in South London don't have low flying aircraft taking off over us,because they're many 1000's of feet up before they reach here.

[cody]

And its SOOOOOOO anoying as they wake me up EVERY morning , we are moving because of the noise

[treehugger]

Genuinely interested where you are going to avoid airplane noise.. Seems to me that if you have to live in london or the SE for work/family etc aircraft noise will always be a problem... Northern Scotland maybe? PS lots of advantages to that and not just decreased airplane noise...

[jimmyay]

it really isnt too bad around here compared to much of London, although sometimes it is intrusive. when the ash cloud closed heathrow for a few days a couple of years back you could really tell the differnce - the constant background hum is inescapable wherever you live in London. i'm just thankful i don't live in west london.

[MrBen]

I used to wake up regularly at 6am with the first flights but in the past 2 weeks it's definitely gotten earlier and is now starting at 4.30am. I've worked out it's Korean Air. The Feckers!

[Peckhampam]

You weren't waking up with the first flights. It has been 4.30 on and off for years!

[nylonmeals]

We moved recently (not because of the planes), close by to Herne Hill and it is noticably quiter in the mornings. Saying that, I think that the road that we lived on in ED was directly under a flight path and it drove me crazy when I had a young baby to look after.

[lardshiplone]

We live on Goose Green and recently it has become unbearable - flights every morning from 5am onwards. God knows how we will sleep in the summer when we have the windows open. Earplugs don't seem to cut the noise out, so I'm not sure what other options are!

[uncleglen]

They are earlier than that. I wear ear plugs at night and was woken up at 04.45 yesterday morning. You are right lardshiplone- when windows are open it is worse. I doubt if there are other options- apart from moving house.

[*Bob*]

Happy Easterly, everyone!

[mrs f]

You get used to the noise after a while... But yes 4:30 is when I thought they started... Having a baby gives one the opportunity to observe early flights ;-)

[Carbonara]

In my insomniac state I have been monitoring this ever since I saw this thread.

There a regular 5 planes that come in one after another very quickly between 4.30 and 4.45, every single night.

[DiD]

James Barber - Beyond joining HACAN, can't the council take this up? Or London Assembly? I too am completely disturbed by the flight noise at 4:30 EVERY MORNING. My health hasn't been well, and I'm sure broken sleep has contributed to this. It seems very extreme to have to consider moving away, as it would uproot a whole family. And while its not new, I'm quite certain its gotten worse in the last couple of years.