Three more imposing planes than usual landed last Saturday on the tarmac at Les Eplatures: water bombers from France, flying towards Germany, but which had to divert to La Chaux-de-Fonds due to the conditions weather report. The pilots of these aircraft from the Luxembourg company Cargolux refueled before leaving the next day. The airport was unable to inform us about their mission.
In the tower, air traffic controller Nicolas Tendero received “a message on our aeronautical interface from Reims announcing the arrival of a diverted aircraft, initially planned for Germany,” he says. It was 10 minutes before landing. In the meantime, Nicolas Tendero inquires “on the internet” about the type of plane approaching and discovers that it is a water bomber. His second surprise will be at first visual contact. That's when he learns that there is not just one plane, but three! “The luck I had that day was that the traffic was quite light, so I had enough time, around a minute, to manage this approaching traffic. Four minutes after seeing them, they were settled. »
Landing requests reach the air traffic controllers at Les Eplatures almost daily in this season when La Chaux-de-Fonds is perched above the fog.
For the record, there was a crowd of people there that day since the Lâche-moi la grape wine fair was taking place right next door. /vco
France
