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Overhead line problems at Hockley (reports of low-flying aircraft?) - 20/04/2012

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tsr

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As I understand it, a low-flying aircraft on approach to Southend Airport has clipped the overhead wires at Hockley station, resulting in what I believe is a total power loss (at the time of typing this!).

I am told this was a small aircraft, and I haven't heard any reports that it has made an emergency landing, but I am willing to be corrected.

This incident occurred at or before 1204hrs.

This is the latest from NRE:

Delays between Shenfield and Southend Victoria until further notice
12:44 - 20/04/2012


Incident created
20/04/2012 12:24

Route affected
London Liverpool Street, Stratford, Shenfield, Wickford, Hockley, Southend Airport & Southend Victoria

Train operator affected
Greater Anglia

Description
Overhead wire problems are causing disruption at Hockley.

Because of this, there are delays of up to 60 minutes between Shenfield and Southend Victoria. These delays will continue until further notice.

Passengers may use c2c services to and from Southend Central.
 
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jopsuk

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It would have to be VERY low flying to have clipped at Hockley, and would have gone into buildings?
 

tsr

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It would have to be VERY low flying to have clipped at Hockley, and would have gone into buildings?

That's what I thought, but I don't think it actually happened at the station itself. There are a number of areas near Hockley station where the railway runs pretty much through fields (according to satellite images), so a crosswind landing passing over these areas might potentially have caused such a problem if the aircraft was pushed too low by wake turbulence or a downdraft, and clipped the lines.

Rainfall radar doesn't indicate any particularly bad storms in the area at the supposed time of the incident.
 

ushawk

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Line has now reopened according to GA on Twitter, so certainly cant of been clipped by a plane.
 

AlterEgo

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Perhaps there was minor damage caused by propwash or something similar, rather than the aircraft actually clipping the lines?
 

tsr

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As I say, I'm willing to be corrected, but I have seen multiple reports that this was the case, and most of these have come from passengers listening to announcements from drivers. Some sort of turbulence or other air movement may in fact be to blame, though.
 

O L Leigh

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It sounds fanciful to me. The proximity to Southend Airport is likely to have been coincidental.

OLE tripping can be caused by many many things, not just an object coming into contact with the wires.

O L Leigh
 

NLC1072

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It sounds fanciful to me. The proximity to Southend Airport is likely to have been coincidental.

OLE tripping can be caused by many many things, not just an object coming into contact with the wires.

O L Leigh

Pigeons seem to be a favourite when they come into contact with bridges and the OHLE at the same time, do half make a bang and a stink though!

NLC1072
 

O L Leigh

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Yup, but they rarely cause the OLE to trip out.

I had one do it right in front of me at Tottenham Hale a few years back. The pigeon survived (although it did look very dazed) and the juice stayed on. Made one hell of a flash and bang, though.

O L Leigh
 

Ivo

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Too far from SEN to have been an aircraft unless there was an issue with said aircraft (in which case it would probably have been on the BBC by now). The usual flight path doesn't go that way anyway, so if it was a plane it would have been a light aircraft as stated previously.
 

O L Leigh

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The big problem with OLE tripping is that each section is so large that it can be hard to pin down exactly where the problem occurred. Hockley may be a long way from Southend Airport, but that does not mean that an OLE incident at the airport did not cause delays and disruption felt most keenly at Hockley. It all depends where the neutral sections are.

But I agree, as I have said already, that any incident related to air traffic is incredibly unlikely, even if it did occur at Southend Airport. I don't "sign" this route and have only ever travelled it once as a passenger, but my recollection was that where the line passes the end of the airfield it runs in a shallow cutting with special low profile OLE structures. Any air traffic at risk of affecting the OLE would have been INCREDIBLY low and, therefore, almost certainly will have crash-landed on or near the perimeter.

My own inclination is to rule-out air traffic interference and blame any OLE tripping on more mundane causes, such as foliage in contact with the OLE, a faulty EMU in the section or some weather-related issues.

O L Leigh
 

ChristopherJ

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Wouldn't be the first time aviation has made contact with the railway at Southend Airport, remember this?!

airport3.jpg
 

Ivo

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I think we can safely say that SEN had nothing to do with this OHLE issue. If it was related to light aircraft, it could have happened anywhere in the country; it just happened to be near an airport.

On the same subject, remember this incident at Southend Airport!?

:shock:

When was that?
 

tsr

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