Phoenix, sandblasted

Visibility didn't drop as bad as I thought it would.
 
I was in the jumpseat of a 737 about 20 seconds before that hit. We just got off in time to have no view of phx. All flights were grounded...had we not gotten out if there I would have missed my trip at pdx.
It was one of the freakiest things I have ever witnessed
 
What's amazing is all the places you find sand after it blows through. Also the need for new windshields every couple of years, etc.
 
That is scary. I saw one of those in Phoenix (not as intense as yesterday's, I'm sure) the very first time I was there, in 1987. Fortunately I was able to skedaddle and high-tail it back to L.A. in time.

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Looks like something George Lucas and his gang at Industrial Light and Magic came up with. Spooky!
 
We'd get one of these every year or so.

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Fearless Tower said:
How long were they grounded for?

Here's a video of a SWA 737 flying through it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W4Cx44XKZ4&feature=player_embedded
Click to expand...

I am positive that was SWA 1496 , There was a 767 before us, a 3 minute break and then we were the last to get out.... in the video it looks as if we went through it but that is a distortion from the lights I believe...we never penetrated the dust, it looked as though the clouds of dust were just below the flight deck, we then made a hard right turn on the Chily1 dep.
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA1496/history/20110706/0155Z/KPHX/KLAS
 
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Here it is the 7th and there is STILL lots of dust in the air. Visibility sucks--VFR ok but not the breathtaking view of the mountains. I was airborne by 6:10 AM and with the sun low it kind of reminded me of the LA smog. :-(

Cheers:

Paul
N1431A
2AZ1
 
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