Heathrow Runway 23 in Use

[Mancman2]

Not a sight often seen but on this day, with strong crosswinds, runway 23 was in use and we were treated to aircraft landing directly in front of the Queens Building.

JA8163 B747 JAL June 1976 Heathrow by Andy Bird, on Flickr

[Mancman2]

1996 not 1976!

[Mike]

Great shot Andy

I've only ever seen them using 23 at LHR once and that was in about 1988, it was being used for a couple of arrivals but was closed after a cargo DC-8 (I can't remember which operator) landed and blew 3 or 4 tyres. I was on the Queen's Buildings and the noise was like gunshots going off, it was still sat there when I left a couple of hours later!

Happy days!

[ap57uk]

I used to work in Wembley and you could tell there was bad weather coming when they switched to 23, used to come right over my office. I did not get much work done when it was in use. At times they appeared as they broke the cloud base. The best work days until they stopped using it, so i moved location and could see Northolt inbounds instead!

Cheers, keep safe

Alan