Bad weather, particularly felt at the end of this morning, forced the TAP plane (TP1694), which made its first flight today departing Madeira (7:10), to make a major detour to the Southeast, before ‘turning’ ‘ towards Lisbon, in order to circumvent the storm that at the time was affecting the Region.
The aircraft, an Airbus A320, after taking off towards Santa Cruz, as it gained speed and altitude, headed towards Desertas, passing between Deserta Grande and Bugio, continuing this trajectory to the southeast, only turning northeast to ‘enter’ the route to Lisbon, 15 minutes after take-off, just before the aircraft reaches cruising altitude.
The result of this detour was a journey that took longer than usual.
Trips that have not yet taken place this morning were the dual regional inter-island connection, Madeira – Porto Santo – Madeira. The Binter aircraft that ensures this connection, last night failed to land in Madeira and ended up diverging to Porto Santo, where it still is. At this time, under normal conditions, he would have landed in Madeira after having gone to Porto Santo. For now, neither one nor the other. Flight(s) that until 09:00 remained in ‘suspended’. Remember there is also no ferry leaving the island totally cut off.
It should also be noted that this morning the maximum gust recorded at Madeira Airport reached 88 km/h. The wind has, however, abated, although in the last hour it continues to blow strongly (maximum gust of 73 km/h, average wind of 47.9 km/h). Hence some constraints in the air operation, but for now, no canceled flights.