Myrtle Avenue, Hounslow

Summary

Myrtle Avenue is a street in the London Borough of Hounslow which is near the eastern end of Heathrow Airport's south runway, 27L.[1] This makes it noisy when aircraft are landing or taking off from 27L, or taking off from 9R, though its view of the aircraft has made it the prime location for plane spotting.[2]

A Boeing 747-400 of Qantas approaching Heathrow Airport's runway 27L in 2004 over Myrtle Avenue
A view of the airport from Myrtle Avenue, July 2020. Visible in the centre of the image is Concorde G-BOAB, which has been present at the airport since landing there in 2000.

Every day, dozens of spotters from all over the world go there to log and photograph the aircraft. At the end of the road is a large green space which is directly underneath the flight paths to and from Runway 27. The nearest London Underground station to Myrtle Avenue is Hatton Cross on the Piccadilly line.[3] On special occasions, such as the arrival of a new type of aircraft, there may be hundreds of spectators there, including the general public as well as regular spotters.[4][5]

On 17 January 2008, British Airways Flight 38 narrowly overflew the street and the adjacent A30 road while undertaking an emergency landing following fuel starvation due to ice building up in the fuel/oil heat exchangers of the Boeing 777 operating the flight.[6]

In popular culture edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Kevan James (2016), Heathrow Airport: An Illustrated History, Fonthill Media, p. 290, ISBN 9781781555118
  2. ^ Olivia Bolton (29 August 2012), "Plane spotters: Heathrow is a special place for us", The Daily Telegraph, archived from the original on 1 September 2012
  3. ^ Andy Dangerfield (31 July 2012), Heathrow's Myrtle Avenue: A plane spotter's paradise, BBC News
  4. ^ Liam Allen (18 May 2006), Anticipation as A380 eyes Heathrow, BBC News
  5. ^ Michael Hogan (23 July 2019), "Planespotting Live, review", The Daily Telegraph
  6. ^ Newell, Mike (3 February 2019). "Life in the shadow of Heathrow Airport". Medium. Retrieved 29 December 2023.

51°27′48″N 0°25′37″W / 51.4633°N 0.4269°W / 51.4633; -0.4269