I live near Harry Reid Airport (FKA McCarren airport) in Las Vegas, directly west of the airport. My apartment faces west. The vast majority of the time, I can look out my window or walk my dog and see planes lined up to come in for a landing (sometimes 7 or more at once!) and watch them fly eastward overhead on their descent. But sometimes, every now and then, the planes go the opposite direction and I see them going WEST and gaining altitude (so clearly they have taken off). WHY do they seemingly randomly switch the runway direction? Weather and wind does not seem to play any factor as I’ve tried to pay attention to if I only see them going the other way when it’s cloudy or windy and no… It truly seems random. Why do they do this? It baffles me.
In: 49
This happens famously at LAX Airport in Los Angeles. 95% of the time the wind is from the west or southwest off the ocean (in fact the airport was put there on the coast because of the reliable west wind), and the planes both take off and land pointing west. I live 3 miles south of it, with a north facing window, so I can clearly see the planes.
On days when it’s raining, storming, or there’s an offshore wind (common in the fall and winter), they reverse the airport, and planes land from the ocean and take off toward the city. They also do a half reverse each night to reduce noise pollution, both landing and taking off over the ocean.
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