Snowy Shots at Southend

It’s been another busy weekend at Southend, however with difficult light and weather conditions.

A good start was G-CELU, a Jet2 737 departing to Leeds/Bradford after having operated the Ford charter behind schedule and night stopped. It was listed to arrive on the LBA arrivals board at 08:05, however I was lucky that a light dusting of snow overnight delayed its depature since it needed de-icing. Not a commonly performed procedure at Southend! It was still quite dark when it finally departed at 8:10. Nice to have the ‘SCOTLAND’ titles. Note the snow on the upper fuselage.

G-CELU Jet2 B733 at Southend EGMC by AeroPics, on Flickr

The next movemnt arrived in a couple of hours, newly repainted Aer Arann ATR42, EI-BYO.

EI-BYO Aer Arann AT43 at Southend EGMC by AeroPics, on Flickr

Unlike EI-CBK, EI-BYO did not receive Aer Lingus Regional livery at Shannon as anticipated, instead being all white with Aer Arann titles, presumably as an interim measure before it does receive Aer Lingus Regional colours.

And finally, after around 5 inches of snow overnight, the airport authority valiantly put good use of the new snow clearing equipment, (which only arrived on Thursday) managing to clear the runway enough to allow another Jet2 737 to arrive in the fading light.

G-CELJ Jet2 B733 at Southend EGMC by AeroPics, on Flickr

Hope this is of interest.