British flights take off simultaneously to celebrate reopening of US border to foreign travellers

As the US reopens to UK travellers the National Air Traffic Services celebrated with a spectacular synchronised, parallel take-off from Heathrow, something that’s extremely rare.

Discussions between NATS, Heathrow, British Airways and Virgin started way back in May of this year in the hope of a US reopening sometime over the summer.

While that didn’t happen, they kept the plans on ice until last month once it became clear things were moving in a positive direction.

The planes involved were British Airways BAW1 on runway 27R and Virgin Atlantic VIR3 on 27L.

Once both aircraft were lined up, the pilots were given the standard take off clearance but with one very unusual addition.
Both were told to ‘standby for roll command’… before the final instruction of ‘3, 2, 1, Now’ was given simultaneously.

Air Traffic Controller Ady Dolan said:

“Heathrow’s runways are ‘only’ 1,414 metres apart, which is too close to be able to do parallel departures outside of very specific weather and visual conditions.

"The controllers must rely on what’s called ‘Reduced Separation in the Vicinity of an Aerodrome’ to ensure the aircraft remain safely apart as they climb out of the airport, and thankfully today the Great British weather was playing ball.”

“Once both flights were climbing, at least 3 nautical miles apart and on clearly diverging routes, the pilots were handed over to the team at Swanwick to continue their journey off to the Atlantic and ultimately, New York JFK airport.”

“In the end it all went entirely to plan – testament to the amazing teamwork of everyone involved – and that’s without even mentioning that the tower was also working with a media helicopter flying around the airfield at the same time.”

“While I’m sure there may still be some turbulence to come, today felt like a real milestone in the industry’s recovery from the Covid crisis. The transatlantic routes are important not just to UK airports and the airlines, but also to us at NATS.

"The UK handles over 80% of all transatlantic traffic, with the team up at Prestwick Centre doing an incredible job overseeing a huge swathe of airspace.”

“It’s very good to have it back.”